Wilting Rose
by Shaded122
Summary: This is a tale of a slightly altered Remnant. The world has all of the same characters, with some mild differences. There will be less conflict for the main cast, and yet they will have a harder hurdle to overcome than any of them can be expecting. For a rose is wilting in their midst, and none of them can stop it.
1. An altered beginning

Ruby Rose was feeling quite proud of herself. Earlier this evening she was able to help stop the criminal Roman Torchwick from robbing a dust shop, though the event could have ended badly for her if Glynda Goodwitch hadn't shown up to save her. Roman was more devious than Ruby had expected, she knew he was a criminal but she didn't quite put together how conniving he would be. Still, she and Glynda had been able to chase the criminal off and save the store. For the most part at least. This was something that Ruby felt that she could take pride in though, so she smiled lightly to herself as she sat in a room waiting for Glynda and the person that had asked to be allowed to speak to her.

"I wonder who wants to speak to me though," Ruby mused while humming quietly. She spent a couple of seconds thinking about who would want to speak to her before giving up and returned to simply humming happily to herself and waiting as patiently as she could manage. Which, unfortunately for her, wasn't all that patiently. It only made things worse that she was sitting at a table in a small room that had nothing other than said table in it. So when she finally heard the door open she felt a wave of relief and excitement wash over her before she turned her head to look at who was entering. When she saw who was entering, her excitement was quickly replaced by nervousness as walking into the room alongside Glynda Goodwitch was none other than the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Professor Ozpin.

"Ruby Rose," Ozpin said as he walked into the room carrying a plate of cookies and a cup of coffee.

"H-Hello," Ruby responded nervously. Ozpin acknowledged her greeting with a nod before walking forward, placing the cookies on the table and motioning for Ruby to help herself. She slowly reached for a cookie before eating it and grabbing the next one, continuing the process until she had finished off the cookies.

"Tell me Miss Rose. Where did you learn to do this?" Ozpin asked, gesturing to Glynda, who was holding a scroll that was displaying a video feed of Ruby's fight with Roman and his goons earlier that night.

"S-signal Academy," she responded almost as if it was a question rather than an answer.

"They taught you to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?"

"Well… My uncle actually. You see he's a teacher at Signal as well but he's the only one that was able to teach me anything as far as combat goes."

"I see," Ozpin said quietly before taking a sip of coffee and and continuing. "It's just that I only know of one other scythe wielder of that skill level. A dusty old crow."

"That's my uncle Qrow!" Ruby said excitedly. "I would be total garbage with a scythe if it wasn't for him, but thanks to his tutoring I can fight with the best of them."

"So I've noticed, but what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors? You already stated that you didn't have natural talent, so what drove you to this decision?" Ozpin asked.

"Well," Ruby began. "I want to be a huntress."

"You want to slay monsters?"

"Yeah. I only have two more years left at Signal Academy and then I'm going to apply to Beacon. You see my sisters starting there this year but -"

"Do you know who I am Miss Rose?" Ozpin asked. Interrupting Ruby from going off on a tangent.

"You're professor Ozpin," Ruby answered. "You're the Headmaster at Beacon."

Ozpin nodded at her answer before saying, "hello."

"Nice to meet you."

"You want to come to my school?"

"More than anything."

Ozpin looked to the side at Glynda, only getting an annoyed look in response, before saying, "well okay."

Ruby sat there in shock for a couple of seconds while the words sunk in. She had just somehow gotten accepted into Beacon, her dream school. Not only that but she got accepted two years early. This was like a dream come true for her. Of course being shot forward two years would be a little rough but with a little hard work and maybe some help from her sister she should be able to manage it. Her lips started to curve into a small smile as she realized what was happening, before a thought struck her and they instead formed a slight frown.

"Professor Ozpin," Ruby began. "I tend… to get sick a lot. I mean I'm sure I can handle the workload and everything it's just… I'm not sure if you want a person who gets sick as often as I do attending your school."

"Well Miss Rose," Glynda responded. "That's something we really can't judge until you're at Beacon already. Thank you for letting us know. We expect to see you at Beacon for initiation."

After Glynda's words both of the adults left the room. Leaving Ruby alone with her thoughts. Her doubts and fears raced across her mind as she stared blankly at her hands resting on the desk. Should she have told them the whole truth? Not even Yang knows the whole truth. It might not be that much of a problem. Hopefully it's not something that needs to be discussed again until after she's graduated from Beacon.

Ruby knew it was a false hope deep down, but it was a hope that she was willing to hold onto with everything she had. So it was with that last hopeful thought that she got up from her seat and left the building to go home and surprise her older sister with the good news. A full smile forming on her face as she thought of what Yang's reaction might be.

* * *

Ruby was getting a little annoyed at her sister's antics. Ever since Yang learned that they were going to Beacon together she had been way to, exaggerated over how awesome it was that Ruby was going to Beacon. Ruby, who had initially been as excited as Yang, was now more nervous than anything. She was going to a school a full two years early and her sister was acting like it was the most exciting thing to ever happen. It was almost as if Yang was ignoring all of the bad things that could happen. What if the people didn't like her? What if kids made fun of her for being 'too young?'. What if something else terrible happened because she got accepted early?

Ruby was currently doing her best to ignore her sister ranting about how awesome it was that they were going to Beacon together, but despite her best efforts she still heard Yang say that Ruby was going to be the bee's knees. She initially thought about voicing her confusion as to whether or not bees actually had knees, but instead chose to say, "don't bees have really short lifespans?"

"Wow Ruby," Yang responded while putting her hands on her hips. An action that was made slightly more intimidating by the way her waist length golden hair framed her body. Not to mention the irritated look on her face and the slight red hue to her normally lilac eyes. "Way to look at it the entirely wrong way."

"I don't want to be anyone special Yang. I just want to be Ruby Rose, a student at Beacon and Huntress in Training. That's it! I don't wanna be some special case where everyone knows my name or anything like that."

"You still didn't have to bring up the lifespan of bees. They're really sensitive about that you know?"

"I highly doubt that any bees feel insulted by my stating they have short lifespans Yang. The point is, I got moved ahead two years. I don't want anyone to think I'm special or anything."

Yang moved to put her arm around Ruby before saying, "but you are special. You're my sister. You stopped a robbery. You've already spoken to Professor Ozpin. No one else here can say those same things."

"Yes but… They have two years of experience on me Yang. Compared to you guys… I'm a little lackluster," Ruby said while staring at her feet. The two sisters stood there in silence for a couple of seconds before the news came on a holo screen on the side of the room they were in. Yang moved away from Ruby to get a better view of the news broadcast. While Ruby just stayed put, knowing that it was about Roman Torchwick and wishing that she had been able to capture him when she stopped the robbery. The news broadcast went on to talk about a civil rights movement that was disrupted by members of a terrorist organization known as the white fang before being cut off and replaced by a holographic image of Glynda Goodwitch. She was wearing a white shirt with a black,button up, corset overtop, a black cape with purple inner lining and a pair of black dress pants.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon," Glynda said.

"Who's that?" Yang asked, receiving an impatient shake of Ruby's head in response.

"My name is Glynda Goodwitch."

"Oh."

"You are among a privileged few who have who have been selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future huntsman and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

With that the holographic image of Glynda faded out and the students slowly became aware of the fact that the bullhead they were in was actually quite close to Beacon academy. Ruby and Yang stared out of the window in silence, slowly watching the school get larger and larger as the flying vehicle they were in drew closer and closer. After a minute or so they gave each other a short side-hug. An unspoken promise that they'd always be there for one another, no matter what happened. Sadly the moment was ruined as a blonde student, who apparently had motion sickness, rushed by doing his best to avoid vomiting until he could find a trash can.

"Welp," Yang said as she looked at the student rush to the back of the bullhead. "That's a ruined sisterly bonding moment."

Ruby laughed lightly at Yang's remark while also watching the motion sick boy run towards the bullheads only vehicle. "It's okay though. It's not as though we need sisterly bonding moments all that much. We're already best friends."

"To true Rubes. Now how about we start this semester off with a Yang," Yang remarked, earning a groan from Ruby.

"I wish you could learn better puns though," Ruby muttered softly to herself.

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys Shaded here. This is actually the first fanfic chapter I have written for myself. I have written another chapter for a story called Cell 502 and this may not be the first chapter I upload depending on how this and another story I'm thinking of known as Remnants of the Mist goes. Nyway this chapter is around 1.8k - 1.9k words without the A/N. Not exactly what I was shooting for. I really want to stay above 2k words per chapter but I didn't want to go into another scene in this chapter. Especially since the next scene I would go to is the initiation. If you're curious about the title… the reason for that will become apparent around chapter 5 if the story develops according to the current plan. Please leave a review letting me know what you think about the chapter and what I can improve on. Thanks and have a great day guys/girls!**

 **Peace.**


	2. The Teams are Formed

Ruby shook with excitement as she stood at the cliffs of Beacon. This was finally her moment to prove herself. Today she would either make it as a huntress in training at one of the most prestigious academies in existence, or she would be sent home. Ruby tilted her head at the thought that there was a possibility of her dying today was well, and then shook her head as Yang was here with her, and together the two of them could take on any grimm in existence. They were just that awesome. She took a quick look at her scroll to check the time and seeing that she still had a couple of minutes before the scheduled time she looked around.

It appeared as though all of the students went through the additional trouble of arriving early so she was able to look at pretty much all of the other first years. There was the vomit boy from the bullhead yesterday. He had introduced himself as Jaune Arc when he met Ruby later that day, though she hadn't particularly enjoyed the conversation. Then again she didn't enjoy most conversations. There was also Weiss Schnee, whose luggage Ruby had accidentally fallen on top of. That was an event she'd rather not repeat. Not only did Weiss get really mad but Ruby's head still hurt from the impact, and her nose still burned from her explosive sneeze.

Ruby's inspection of her fellow first-years was cut off by a coughing fit on her part. She raised a part of her red cloak to cover her mouth so that she wouldn't accidentally cough in anyone's general direction. Though the cloak didn't help the fact that the fit left her breathless and with a sore throat. It also didn't stop people from noticing the coughing and giving her looks that ranged from 'why is she here if she's sick' to 'I feel so sorry for that girl'. Ignoring Yang's concerned glance Ruby stood up straight and looked forward. Doing her best to ignore the other students around her and wait for instructions from the teachers. She didn't have to wait long as Ozpin chose to speak shortly thereafter.

"Students," Ozpin said to gain everyone's attention. "You have probably wondered about how the teams will be set up at Beacon. Let us clear that up for you. You will each be assigned to a team. Today"

That comment caught Ruby's attention. She didn't particularly like having to be a part of a team, as she wasn't a people person, but she saw the benefit of working with a team. However she couldn't spend too much time thinking about this as the headmaster continued.

"You will each be launched into the forest, and the first person you make eye contact with upon landing will be your partner. After that you will make your way to a set of ruins within the forest where you will collect one of the relics and then return here to complete initiation."

A small grimace found it's way onto Ruby's face as she realized how random the partner assignment process would be. It was bad enough that she wasn't guaranteed that it'd be Yang, but worse is that there's a possibility that it could be Weiss, who already didn't like her, or Cardin, who Ruby wanted to hurt. She had seen him bullying some other students earlier this morning. However she quickly stopped those thoughts in their tracks as there was no way for her to control the outcome other than hope and pray she ran into Yang first.

It was at that moment that the first of the students was launched into the air by a metal pad that he was standing on. The loud clank the pad made as it launched him helped Ruby calm herself and regain her focus. She took a quick glance down to ensure she was standing at the center of her launch pad before grabbing Crescent Rose and preparing for her own launch. A clicking was heard underneath her. Ruby looked down for a moment and before she knew it, she was flying through the air at high speeds. Her plan was fairly simple, hook a tree branch with Crescent Rose to slow her descent before landing gracefully on her feet. The execution would be a little more tricky as if she missed the branch she was going for she wouldn't get a second chance.

As she started falling towards the forest beneath her she stared dead ahead, keeping her eyes focused on the patch of trees she'd be falling towards, looking for the branch she'd use to stop her descent. For a couple of moments she grew worried as she couldn't find one until, mere moments before she would have missed the branch, she spotted one that would work and with a precise swing of her scythe she hooked the branch. Her scythe was sharp enough to cut through the branch. However the branch was thick enough to break a large portion of her momentum in the process, so when she did hit the ground it was relatively soft. Especially compared to how it would have gone should she have missed the branch. Ruby smiled at her successful landing before breaking into another fit of coughs. This coughing fit being so intense that it brought her to her knees until it was over.

"Perfect timing to get sick there Ruby," She muttered to herself angrily. It was then that she heard the sound of something approaching and got ready to fight. Facing the sound she got in a defensive posture with Crescent Rose aimed and ready to fire in its semi-automatic gun form. However it proved to be an unnecessary precaution as she heard a voice call out.

"Hello?"

"Over here," Ruby responded hesitantly. She had recognized the voice and while she wasn't happy with who it was, there was worse people it could have been. Her suspicions were proved correct when the white-haired heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss Schnee, walked out of the bush and towards Ruby.

"I heard you coughing. Are you okay?" The heiress asked.

"I'm fine, it's just a cough," Ruby answered.

"Alright, well I guess we're partners now," Weiss stated with mild disappointment lacing her voice. She then turned and pointed in front of Ruby. "I'm pretty sure the ruins are in that direction."

"Well, that is the direction we were launched in… so yeah. I think so too."

"Great, do you need to rest first or should we go right now? That was a heck of a cough"

"Look, Weiss," Ruby began with irritation heavy in her voice. "I get sick. More often than most people you know. However Ozpin said I have the skills to be here and I want to prove that I can do this despite having relatively fragile health and being younger than everyone here."

"Sorry, I didn't think I was being pushy or overconcerned."

"You weren't. It's just people have been babying me my entire life because of my health. I'd rather that not continue in Beacon. I know it may be hard to ignore, but if you and I are going to be partners I'm going to need you to be more concerned about helping me grow as a huntress than you are about my health. Can you do that?"

"Deal," Weiss said professionally. "I'll make sure that you're the perfect huntress when you graduate Beacon, ignoring health issues of course."

Ruby smiled lightly at that. "I get the feeling that you would have done that anyway," she commented as she started walking.

"I would have. I'm Weiss Schnee, nothing less than perfection is accepted from me."

"Then I'm glad I'm Ruby Rose, perfection means little in my family."

"We're going to have some issues then," Weiss responded with a sigh.

"Only if you want to have issues. I'm fine with forgetting about it."

* * *

Ruby was standing next to Weiss in the Beacon auditorium. They had completed the initiation and were currently waiting through a presentation that formed all of the new teams. Ruby had to admit that she felt the 'relics' in the ruins were a little lack luster. They were overglorified chess pieces. Not only that but the partners that collected the same chess piece were put on the same team. So that meant that Yang, her partner Blake, Weiss, and Ruby would all end up on the same team. Though the fact that they had grabbed the same chess piece was more accidental than anything. Still Ruby was glad that she was on a team with her sister. That would mean that there was at least one person on her team who would treat her normally, possibly two if Weiss kept her promise about ignoring her health issues, but Ruby doubted she would. Health issues are a hard thing for most people to ignore, even if asked to.

When one of the teachers motioned for the four of them to go onto the stage Ruby missed it and would have been left behind if it wasn't for Weiss grabbing her arm and dragging her the first few steps. It wasn't the nicest way to go about helping Ruby, but at the same time the two of them had been having conflicts of personality all day. Weiss being practically raised to be a perfect leader and noble, and Ruby being relatively awkward and not having any idea about being noble in any way. Of course Weiss was trying to be patient with the red-caped girl, but she had her limits and Ruby seemed to know how to push her to those limits. The two could only hope that their relationship would improve over time.

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao-Long," Ozpin said to the audience, though his voice came from the speakers behind them. "The four of you collected the White Knight pieces and will form team RWBY." He paused as the audience clapped for the four of them. "With Ruby Rose as the leader."

At that moment everything stopped for Ruby. She had been named the leader of a team. This was something that she was brutally unprepared for. Why couldn't Weiss be the leader? At least Weiss knew how to lead people and present her opinion to a group of people who may not agree. Was it because Ruby had been giving orders to Yang during that one fight that the four of them worked together for?

Ruby was so stuck in her thoughts that not even the act of Yang giving her a hug was able to bring her back to reality. Though when she did finally recover, she looked over her team to see their reactions. Yang was quite obviously excited, Blake seemed to be neutral towards the decision, and Weiss was giving her a shocked, yet somehow judging look. Ruby realized that she was not looking forward to any confrontation she would end up having with the Schnee, but there was probably no way to avoid it either. So it was with heavy footsteps that she walked out of the auditorium with her team and headed to their dorm. Upon getting to their room she quickly claimed a bed went to work making sure she had all of the stuff she'd need for classes tomorrow. She might not be the best of students, but she was going to try and change her habits while at Beacon.

"Hey Ruby," Yang said from across the room.

"Yes Yang," was the quiet response from Ruby.

"Why is Weiss pacing around in the hallway?"

"How would I know Yang?" the scythe wielder responded in annoyance. "I met her like five minutes before you did, last time I checked it does not take five minutes to learn all about someone."

"Well… She's your partner. Why not go see what's up? I mean if she can't trust me and Blake she needs to be able to trust you."

Ruby looked at Yang questioningly for a couple of seconds before putting her stuff down and walking into the hallway. It only took a matter of seconds for her to locate Weiss and walk over to her.

"Hey Weiss," she began before a coughing fit overtook her. "What's wrong?"

"You're team leader!" Weiss exclaimed in frustration. "That's what's wrong."

"Yeah. And?"

"You know nothing about leadership. I've been trained for leadership my entire life, and yet you get the leadership position."

"I'm not happy about it either, but I can't change it," Ruby said quietly.

That comment stopped Weiss in her tracks. "You didn't want to be leader?"

"Why would I want to be a leader Weiss? I have enough things to deal with just trying to be the best huntress I can. I don't know how to be a leader."

"Exactly my point! You can't lead. How am I expected to follow a team leader who is vastly under qualified?"

"I don't know Weiss, but I'm going to need help. I need someone to help me become both a leader and the best huntress I can be, and I was hoping that, since you already stated that you'd help me become the perfect huntress, you'd be willing to help me lead?"

"I can try, but leading will be more on you that me. I'll try and support you the best I can though."

"That's more than what I'm getting right now."

"It's not going to be much. I don't think I'll be able to get around my issues with your leadership capability for a while."

Ruby had a short coughing fit before responding, "I know I'm not all that special, but I'm going to do the best I can for our team."

"That's a good start," Weiss said matter-of-factly. "Just keep that mindset and you may prove me wrong."

"Not trying to prove you wrong but I guess that would be a good thing in this situation," Ruby mumbled thoughtfully. "Wanna go back in our dorm? You still have to claim a bed. We're going to unpack and organize tomorrow."

"Alright."

With that the two went back into their dorm and started preparing for the following day. As team RWBY prepared for sleep each of the team members had their own thoughts. Ruby thought of her desire to prove herself to her teachers and team members, Yang was silently praying that Ruby wouldn't be sent home due to being sick too much, Blake was thinking about how each member of her team was so different, and Weiss was thinking about how she could have helped the team if she had been team leader.

 **AN**

 **Hey guys. Here's chapter two. One of you said that you hope I'm not an author that makes a chapter and then disappears for two years, well unless I've been asleep for much longer than I realize then it hasn't been two years yet. Side note there were no Deathstalkers or Nevermores in this initiation. As the summary states this story there's gonna be less intense combat but they're gonna have different trials to make up for that. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. If you feel like anythings wrong or off please let me know and I'll look it over. Though please understand that this is an AU and they have had slightly different lives than cannon. Nyway please leave a review. Your constructive criticism and thoughts on the chapter will help me progress as a writer. Also I'm kinda happy that I was able to make this chapter longer. Though not quite as long as I want my chapters to be. This chapter sits at around 2.4k words without the AN. If I keep up this pace I'll be making 10k word chapters by the times this fic is done... probably won't be though.  
**

 **Have a good one guys.**


	3. A Mild Confrontation

A week had passed since initiation and Ruby's cough wasn't getting any better. While it was getting any worse, it was still concerning to both Blake and Weiss. The two members of team RWBY had never had to deal with a sick person before and therefore felt like there was something that they should be doing that they weren't doing. Their concern kept growing until at the end of the week they had both come to the conclusion that they needed to confront someone about it. However, they couldn't confront Ruby herself as she had repeatedly told them not to worry about it and that she was doing fine. So they decided to confront Yang instead.

One afternoon after returning to their dorm from professor Goodwitch's sparring class Weiss, who normally took a shower first, offered to let Ruby have the first shower. The youngest member of team RWBY happily accepted the offer and darted into the bathroom and a scant couple of seconds later the sound of the shower running drifted from the bathroom into the dorm. Upon hearing the sound, Blake took a deep breath before turning on her bed to face Yang, who was laying down in the middle of the room, and saying, "Yang. About Ruby's cough."

"Yeah?" Yang responded questioningly while turning to look back at Blake.

"I know she says it's normal and that she's probably been through worse than this many times before, but it's not normal."

Yang shook her head slightly before responding, "of course it's not normal, Blake. Ruby has a very weak immune system. That's why this is normal for her. It's kinda sad actually. Other than her addiction to cookies she has the best health habits out of everyone I know and yet she's still sick on a regular basis."

"So why did she decide to be a huntress despite her health problems?" Weiss asked from her desk where she was both studying and listening to the conversation.

"I honestly don't know," Yang stated sadly. "I've asked her several times before and yet all she ever tells me is that it's the right thing to do."

Silence followed that statement as Weiss and Blake processed what they just learned. The two of them were both very impressed with their team leaders resolve but couldn't understand why the younger girl would still choose such a demanding and dangerous profession in spite of her health problems. Of course, neither of them actually needed to be huntresses either, but they weren't honestly sure if they'd have chosen to become one if they had health issues.

"Can we do anything to help her at all?" Weiss eventually asked.

"Just don't get sick. Other than that Ruby would rather take care of herself," Yang answered after a moment of thought.

The conversation continued for a while with Blake and Weiss attempting to think of way where they could help take care of Ruby. Though whenever they came up with an idea Yang would shut it down by either explaining how that would hamper Ruby's ability to take care of herself or pointing out that Ruby wouldn't want people going out of their way to help her that much. After a little while, the conversation switched from talking about how they can help take care of Ruby to thinking of small ways where they can make her life easier. These ideas were anything from letting her take first shower every time to paying for the team at restaurants so Ruby wouldn't have to pay for herself. Yang seemed content to just let the bounce ideas off of each other as she stayed quiet and stared at the ceiling. They were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't notice that the shower had stopped. Blake was explaining a new way she thought they could make Ruby's life easier when she heard the doorknob turning. She stopped mid-sentence and her gaze shot to the bathroom door as she watched the door open slowly.

As the door opened a little bit, Ruby poked her head, still dripping from her shower, into the room and said, "I have no idea how long you guys have been talking and while I do appreciate the concern you've shown, I'd rather you treat me the same way you would if I was perfectly healthy." Having said what she wanted to say Ruby withdrew back into the bathroom to dry herself and get dressed.

"Well there you have it guys," Yang said while clapping her hands. "Just be glad it was my sister in the shower and not me. I would have just walked right on out."

"Well at least she's modest enough to not follow your example," Weiss said in disgust while shaking her head. She was desperately trying to rid her mind of the image Yang had just created.

Yang smiled widely at Weiss. "Oh admit it," she began cheerfully. "You wouldn't have minded seeing more of Ruby."

A terrified shout of "Yang!," echoed from the bathroom, almost cutting off Yang's sentence.

"I most certainly would have minded!" Weiss said heatedly while glaring daggers at Yang, which caused the blonde to break out into laughter. She continued laughing until Ruby came out of the shower, fully clothed, and started attempting to glare at her as well. Unfortunately for Ruby, her glare resembled a sad puppy more than it resembled a glare but it was still enough to get Yang to stop laughing.

"Yang, go get food or something," Ruby said angrily.

"Alright," Yang said while walking slowly to the door. When she got to the door a mischievous grin spread across her face as she turned around and said "I'll just leave you guys alone." As she finished her statement she winked, closed the door, and started to walk down the hallway.

The stunned silence that followed was interrupted by the sound of Ruby's hand hitting her forehead. "I'm really sorry about my sister," she said with mild irritation present in her voice.

"No need for you to apologize," Blake responded with a sigh. "We've only been a team for a week and I already realize that it's impossible to stop her at times."

"While that is true, I'd appreciate it if we could do our best to refrain from giving her similar material to tease us with ever again," Weiss stated, earning a nod from the other two people in the room.

"I can agree with that," Ruby said thoughtfully. "However, I can't agree with you guys going behind my back discussing how to treat like I'm some sort of failure who can't take care of themselves."

"How much of the conversation did you hear?" Blake asked in confusion. "I thought you only heard when we started talking about the small things."

"That's the only part from you guys I heard," Ruby said with a nod. "And while those ideas were cute I'd rather you not do them unless you'd have done so normally. If you're wondering why I knew the basic concept of your earlier part of the conversation it's because Yang talks loud. I could hear her the entire time."

"Ruby, you have to know that's not how we meant those suggestions right?"

"I understand that you weren't thinking like that Blake, but you have to realize that everyone treats me like I'm only half capable. No one treats me like a normal person. People who get sick on a regular basis aren't all that common anymore. So people go straight from an "oh that's a normal person" mindset to a "oh that person's a cripple" mindset."

That explanation from Ruby had both Blake and Weiss hanging their heads in shame. They hadn't realized that that's how they were trying to treat her. Of course, Yang had been pointing that out the entire time, but it hadn't fully clicked. This was how people normally responded to realizing that Ruby was sick a lot? The two team members finally understood why Ruby hated being treated like she couldn't handle herself. She had proved to them during the initiation that she's a skilled and capable fighter and still they were sitting down plotting ways to make her life easier without her consent. Blake opened her mouth to apologize, but Ruby spoke up before she could.

"I really do appreciate that you guys care," she said quickly. "But I'd like it if you could focus on caring for me like a friend or teammate rather than like a sick person."

"It's a little early to be calling us friends," Weiss responded which caused Ruby to look at the floor sadly. "However I will try to care about as a teammate. When we get that down we can start the whole 'friend' thing."

"Thanks Weiss," Ruby said, happy with the fact that Weiss said she'd try.

"I'll do my best Ruby," Blake said as she got down from her bed. Earning another small cheer from Ruby.

Weiss gave Ruby a calculating look as she watched Ruby cheer to herself. Her guilt growing as she realized how important the promise she just made truly was to Ruby. 'One day I'll be able to keep my promise,' she thought to herself before voicing a new question. "You sent Yang to get food… does that mean she'll get food for us?"

Ruby shook her head in response. "She won't think about that unless you call her or send her a message via scroll. Though she might not look at a message as she doesn't really care much about those."

"I'll call her," Blake responded, already grabbing her scroll. "And Ruby, I'm really sorry for what we were discussing earlier."

"I know Blake," Ruby said with a small smile. "You didn't realize what it would mean to me. It's not like you meant any harm, and I meant it when I said that I appreciated the concern. You two are nice people… although it may be hard to see at times. You aren't people who'd try to put me down."

After that the only sound in the room was Blake as she was talking to Yang over her scroll. When that conversation ended she told the other two that Yang had agreed to bring back food for them. The room then fell into a comfortable silence as the three of them waited for Yang to come back with their food. Each of them started doing different tasks as they waited. Ruby hopped on her bed to start her homework, Blake sat in the corner and started reading a book, and Weiss started studying to prepare for classes tomorrow. A couple of minutes passed in silence until Yang knocked on the door. Blake went to open the door for Yang and found, to her surprise, not only Yang but also team JNPR.

"Hey Blake!" Nora said loudly as Blake opened the door, causing Blake to wince lightly.

"Hi Nora," Blake responded. "What's up?"

"Oh not all that much," Pyrrha said from behind Nora. "We were just thinking about how our two teams worked really well together during initiation but haven't spent all that much time hanging out. Then we saw Yang and decided to ask if we could spend dinner together as teams."

"I said yes," Yang said proudly. "I hope that's not a problem for anyone."

After all of team RWBY indicated that they were okay with it team JNPR entered the dorm and they all sat on the floor and ate dinner together. The group of students talked about everything from pancakes to combat styles and strategies for fighting grimm. After a while Nora decided to ask about Ruby's cough and team JNPR learned about her health issues and how coughs like that were normal for her. That lead to a discussion on how Ruby would appreciate being treated like a normal person if at all possible. Any pity or sorrow team JNPR directed toward the younger girl was deflected by the fact that she seemed to be perfectly capable of keeping up with Nora and was willing to play a dancing game with said girl when they got it set up.

"Cya guys have a good one," Ruby called out excitedly as team JNPR left the room.

"Of course! I'll let you know when we get Dancing Star: Rise to the Top set up!" Nora called back

The door closing cut off Ruby's response of, "sounds good." She then turned to her team and said, "That was really fun. Thanks for telling them they could come over Yang."

"No problem sis. Who'da guessed that you and Nora of all people would become best friends." Yang responded.

"In all honesty Nora was the only one who seemed to be truly comfortable with us," Blake said thoughtfully. "Neither Ren nor Jaune talked all that much and Pyrrha was overly polite. That could just be who she is though."

"I felt the same way," Weiss said in response. "Though I do think that's how Pyrrha naturally is. I've talked to her on several occasions and she's always been like that."

"Huh," was Yang's response to that statement. "I think we're gonna have to find a way to get her to loosen up a bit."

"How about we just let her be herself… and we'll be ourselves," Ruby said while laying down on the floor. "

"Ruby you should probably go to sleep now."

"Probably… Goodnight everyone."

 **AN**

 **I have to apologize for several things in this chapter. First thing is I feel like the quality of this chapter is a little low. Second thing is I'm a little late on this chapter and the third thing is that this chapter is about 1k words shorter than I wanted it to be. Sad thing is that the reason for these things is that yesterday… or was it the day before? … I accidentally deleted this chapter and couldn't get it back. So I had to rewrite the entire thing. I'll probably come back to this chapter again at some later point in time but we'll see. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Have a great day and please leave a review. Also if you see any errors ... please let me know so I can go back and correct them.**


	4. A Healthy Rose

A week and a half had passed since team RWBY and team JNPR had truly hung out for the first time. Ruby's cough had been consistent for another week before steadily calming down. Today teams RWBY and JNPR were both sitting at the lunch table and Ruby had yet to cough, which was a relief to her throat. Ruby had been very quiet for the past couple of days due to a sore throat, courtesy of her cough. Though her silent communications were expressive and animated enough that it made up for the fact that she didn't speak all that much.

Ruby was smiling happily as she inspected her teammates and friends between bites of food. Blake and Weiss had been amazing since their talk. They still went out of their way to do small little things for her, which she found both annoying and amazing all at the same time, but they weren't really being overly pushy with it. For the most part though, they treated her as a normal person. A fact that consistently made Ruby happy. She had taken to giving them small tokens of appreciation. In other words she'd give them cookies from her seemingly endless supply that she kept hidden at all times. It always made her laugh when she saw the looks of confusion on their faces when they realized that she just grabbed a cookie out of apparently nowhere.

* * *

 _Weiss was staring at Ruby in utter disbelief, "Ruby where in the world did you get that cookie?"_

" _From my secret hiding place!" Ruby had responded with as much innocence as she could muster. Prompting Weiss to pinch the bridge of her nose._

" _May I ask where this hiding place is?"_

" _Nope! It's a secret."_

" _Well then… Why exactly are you giving me a cookie?"_

 _Ruby smiled brightly before answering, " well you and Blake have been awesome friends and such… and I've never really had all that many friends… so I wanna thank you guys." The smaller girl then proceeded to hold out her hand that was holding the cookie._

" _You know you don't have to pay us for our friendship right?" Weiss asked without moving to take the cookie._

" _Of course I don't, but I wanna show appreciation for your friendship. Of course there're other ways I could do that but I highly doubt either you or Blake would appreciate me being really huggy and/or trying to kiss you guys."_

 _Weiss' face turned a light shade of red as she took a slight step back. "I can't believe that kind of thought even crossed your mind, though I am grateful that you didn't act on it."_

 _Ruby took a small step forward. "Yeah… I have some issues with those kinda boundaries. I try to respect other people's personal space though. Do you not like cookies?"_

 _Weiss found her gaze lowered onto the cookie resting in Ruby's outstretched hand. "I like cookies Ruby. Thanks… For respecting my personal space and for the cookie."_

 _Ruby's face lit up as Weiss reached to take the cookie. She appeared as though she was going to give Weiss a hug before realizing something and taking a step back and settling for holding her fist out for a fist bump. Weiss on the other hand just gave Ruby a questioning look for a couple of seconds not realizing what the gesture meant. When it did click in her mind she lifted her free hand and returned the fist bump before walking over to her desk, eating the cookie, and doing her homework._

* * *

 _Blake gave Ruby a questioning look as the team leader of team RWBY had produced yet another cookie out of apparently nowhere. What was more surprising however was that instead of eating the cookie herself, the team leader instead offered the cookie to Blake. Knowing Ruby's love for cookies, the idea that she would be willing to give one away for no apparent reason was something that Blake couldn't understand._

" _Yes Ruby?" Blake asked slowly._

" _I'm giving you a cookie," Ruby stated matter-of-factly._

" _Why?"_

 _Ruby smiled lightly, "Well I wanna show appreciation for your friendship, and… I don't have all that many ways of doing that… so… want a cookie?"_

" _Sure Ruby," Blake said while reaching for the cookie. "You don't have to do this though."_

" _I know… but you don't technically_ have _to be my friend either, but you are. So I'm giving you this cookie 'cause I wanna show you how much I appreciate that."_

 _Blake smiled lightly at Ruby, "Thank you Ruby." As she said that Blake turned back to her homework before taking a bite of the cookie. She had been working on this assignment for a while but hadn't been making any progress._

" _What're you working on?" Ruby asked as she moved back to her bed._

" _The assignment from Professor Goodwitch," Blake said with a sigh._

 _Ruby perked up at that. "The one where we have to make schematics for an alternate version of our own weapons?"_

 _Blake nodded slowly. "I'm not sure how I'd change Gambol Shroud so I'm having problems."_

" _Want me to help?" Ruby asked quietly. "I may or may not have already drawn some schematics about an alternate Gambol Shroud."_

 _Blake turned to give Ruby a blank stare, "why would you have schematics for an alternate Gambol Shroud?"_

 _Ruby looked at the ground nervously. "I may or may not really like weapons and weapon schematics. Also I may or may not have gotten bored a little while ago and drawn alternate schematics for Gambol Shroud, Myrtenaster, and Ember Celica."_

 _Blake looked at her team leader and laughed lightly. "Alright Ruby… would you mind giving me some help?"_

" _Of course not!" Ruby said excitedly while walking over to Blake. "Let's get started!"_

* * *

Ruby was pulled from her thoughts as she heard Nora call her name. Looking over at the energetic girl from team JNPR she smiled before informing Nora that she hadn't been paying attention and asking if she would mind repeating herself.

"Not a problem Ruby," Nora said without missing a beat. "I was just saying that I had noticed that you hadn't coughed at all today. I was wondering if you had recovered from your cough."

Ruby nodded energetically before quietly saying, "Yup. but my throat hurts… so I can't talk all that much."

"That's fine!" Nora responded while practically jumping at Ruby to give her a friendly hug. "I'm just really happy that you're finally doing better!"

Ruby returned Nora's hug. Nora usually respected personal space to some degree but for some reason that didn't apply to herself or Ren. She had gotten used to it fairly quickly as she had simply been happy that she had a new friend. "Mhmm!"

Pyrrha got a questioning look on her face as she turned to Ruby, "Does that mean Professor Goodwitch is going to have you participate in her sparring class now?"

Ruby nodded enthusiastically in response before responding, "I don't know why she didn't let me when I was coughing. Not like a cough would keep an actual huntress down."

"She's just being careful Ruby," Yang replied.

"Yeah," Nora added. "Plus if she had made you fight, me and Ren woulda had to break someone's legs."

Ruby giggled lightly before shaking her head. Though she didn't say anything it was clear to the group that she wouldn't have appreciated that action. Nora just shrugged and went back to devouring her pancakes with a satisfied smile on her face.

* * *

Glynda Goodwitch stood in the middle of the arena as her next class filed into the classroom. She took the time to check her class roster mentally noting how many times each individual student had sparred in her class already. As she realized that everyone had been getting equal treatment she allowed a small smile to appear on her face. The smile remained until she got to the name Ruby Rose and was forced to admit to herself that said student hadn't dueled even once in the almost three weeks that school had been going. Of course Ruby had been sick, which was why she hadn't been dueling, but the fact that the young yet talented girl hadn't had an opportunity to prove herself to her classmates was a sore spot for the professor.

Looking up from her scroll, Glynda saw Ruby as the girl entered the classroom. The student gave her teacher a thumbs up, indicating that she was healthy and able to actually participate. Professor Goodwitch gave a small sigh of relief as she looked back at the class roster to choose an opponent for Ruby's first fight. Mr. Winchester should be a good match. Although it seems as though the red-caped girl already didn't like that particular student. It was then that Glynda then realized that she referred to Ruby by her first name rather her last name. After giving it a moment of thought she realized that not just her, but also the other teachers of Beacon had all been worrying the little girl and probably had started thinking of her as a friend rather than a student.

Looking at the time she realized it was time to start class and called the class to attention.

"Today I'd like to get straight to the spars," she began gaining the attention of the class. "So we'll be starting with a spar between Ruby Rose and Cardin Winchester."

She watched with mild amusement as the majority of the class sent a questioning glance towards the youngest student in the class before choosing to cheer her on in her first fight. Shouts of encouragement followed the small girl as she walked down the stairs toward the arena where as Cardin only got a couple of encouraging words from his own team. The two combatants looked at each other with calm gazes before drawing their respective weapons and waiting for the signal to start. Of the two Ruby's weapon was by far the more intimidating to look at. Cardin wielded a mace with explosive capabilities that could be devastating should he land a clean hit. However Ruby held a scythe that was entirely to large for her. The red and black themed weapon resting easily beside her while she kept a loose, one-handed grip on it. Not only that but the scythe also doubled as a high-impact sniper rifle. Those who looked close enough could see a look of mild surprise and shock cross Cardin's face as he realized exactly what kind of weapon Ruby had. After recovering from his shock he assumed a combat stance. On the other hand Ruby stayed in her relaxed posture while she waited for the signal.

Glynda took a step forward and raised her hand before reminding the two of the rules of the spar. After doing so she dropped her hand and shouted, "Begin!"

Glynda hadn't even finished the word before Ruby made her move. Using her semblance to dart across the arena at speeds most people couldn't even follow she began an unforgiving assault on Cardin. Cardin, having been caught off guard, barely had any time to raise his mace in a defensive manner before he felt the shock of Ruby's scythe impacting his weapon. The reaper didn't stop there however, she continued with a flurry of attacks so fast and vicious that Cardin was forced to continually defend and even then he took some hits that were too fast for him to block. The sound of metal striking against metal sounded constantly in a song of pain and desperation as Cardin was forced to desperately, and sometimes randomly, block Ruby's unstoppable assault. No matter how fast he forced his body to move Ruby was always faster, her merciless scythe constantly moving toward him and beating on his mace whenever it got in the way.

A few minutes had passed by and Cardin still hadn't been able to interrupt his opponents onslaught. The melody of ringing metal the only sound that he could hear anymore as the strikes came faster and faster. His mind racing to find a way to end the brutal onslaught of the silver-eyed girl he was fighting. Almost instinctively he raised his mace to block a strike aimed at his neck and he had to suppress a sigh of relief as he wasn't forced to hit himself with his own weapon, an occurrence that had happened before in this fight. His face was a mask of concentration as he searched his mind for a solution to his situation. However his moment of concentration cost him more than he had realized as a scythe blade came arcing toward his face faster than he could block. Throwing himself backward to avoid the blade he came up with his plan. It would require him to take a blow or two but if he hit her square in the chest he would win. Rearing his arm back to prepare for his attack he smiled as he waited for her to draw closer. He did not expect to hear the sound of a gunshot and get knocked backwards by a shot to the chest. As he fell on his back he heard Professor Goodwitch call the match and looked up at the screen showing the combatants aura. As expected his was in the red. He was openly shocked however as he realized that Ruby's aura had hardly even been touched in the fight. That could only mean that she hadn't been actively using her semblance the entire time. She had only used it to cross the distance.

Staggering a little bit he stood up and looked at the girl who had so thoroughly beaten him to see a small smile on her face. "You won't win next time brat," he said with as much confidence as he could muster.

Ruby's smile stayed in place as she responded with, "I really hope so. I'd like to have a rival or five." She then turned and walked back up to the seats where she sat down with her teammates.

"Wow Rubes," Yang began as her sister sat down next to her. "No mercy for Cardin?"

"Bullies don't deserve mercy Yang," Ruby said happily as she did a quick check of Crescent Rose. "He's never going to beat me… not if he stays a bully."

"Are you going to break his legs?" Nora asked excitedly as she watched the next two combatants step onto the battlefield.

"No," Ruby said quietly. "I don't break stuff. My weapon is more for cutting, and I'd rather not maim him."

Pyrrha broke into the conversation before Nora could say anymore. "Either way. Congratulations on winning your first spar Ruby. I must say that I'm looking forward to when I have the chance to spar with you. You'll most definitely prove to be a challenging opponent."

Ruby brightened up at the idea of being able to spar with Pyrrha and responded, "Does it have to happen in class? Can't we be sparring partners outside of class?"

"That would be grand. I'm busy a lot but I'll let you know when I'm free so we can spar," Pyrrha answered with a happy smile on her face.

After everyone had congratulated Ruby in their own way the group returned to watching the various spars that Professor Goodwitch had set up. They took turns commenting on the various fighting styles and asking question about their fellow classmates' tactical decisions. After class ended the eight friends went their separate ways to do what they needed to do.

* * *

Weiss was doing her homework in the library when Ruby walked up to her with a hesitant look on her face. Weiss gave her a questioning glance before looking up and asking, "is something wrong Ruby?"

Ruby looked down in apparent defeat before answering, "I … don't know how to do Professor Peach's homework assignment. Can you help me?"

Closing her notebook Weiss gestured for Ruby to take a seat. As Ruby did so Weiss cleared the table of everything she was using for her homework. "I'm always willing to help Ruby. However I'm not going to do your homework for you."

"I wouldn't ask you to," was the response that came from the shorter girl as she shook her head. "But I really need some tips. I just don't understand what she's trying to teach us."

"You know sometimes I wonder if you really made Crescent Rose."

"Why's that?" Ruby questioned while opening both her textbook and her notebook to pages that she had marked earlier.

"The stuff that Professor Peach is teaching us is nowhere near as complicated as the stuff that would go into making a weapon like that," Weiss responded as she read over Ruby's notes and made a couple of alterations for Ruby's benefit. "Though despite that I can't help but believe that you actually made your weapon."

"Of course I did!" Ruby said with a measure of pride evident in her voice. "Although I'll admit to getting some very… specific tutoring from my uncle as I was learning everything that went into making her." She then turned her head to look over some of the changes that Weiss had made to her notes. "That makes these problems a lot simpler."

"I'm not doing this to make it harder on you Ruby. I'm trying to help you, not hinder you," Weiss said in response to Ruby's observation. She continued to look through her partners notes and make some minor changes. "So you'll probably actually do a lot better in the more advanced classes. Also your note taking skills are surprisingly good. I had expected less thorough notes based on how often you're goofing off in class."

Ruby nodded in response to Weiss' comment about their future classes. "Yeah… I don't actually take notes in class," the team leader began hesitantly. Hoping that she wasn't offending her teammate with her words. "I take notes after getting back to the dorm. Though sometimes I mess up 'cause I can't remember everything they say perfectly."

Weiss stopped her evaluation of Ruby's notes and stared at the red-caped girl for a few moments with disbelief evident on her face. "You're telling me that you do this all based off of memory? That's incredible, but it also explains why you've made some of these mistakes here and there. You should have one of us go over your notes when you're done to make sure these mistakes are taken care of. You're a smart girl and if you didn't have these mistakes holding you back you should be fine."

Ruby smiled lightly at her partner. "Mkay! … um would you be willing to do that for me?"

"Sure Ruby," Weiss said, a small smile forming on her face. "Now let's see you do some of these problems with the corrections I gave you."

Ruby nodded enthusiastically as she then started to tackle the various problems from the textbook one by one. Weiss made sure to check each problem as she completed them and gave allowed a satisfied smile to form as Ruby got each and every problem correct. When Ruby was about halfway through the problems Weiss decided that she was no longer needed and moved to stand up and leave the study area of the library. She had hardly taken three steps when she felt someone wrap their arms around her from behind.

"Thanks Weiss," Ruby said, her voice muffled due to her speaking into Weiss' back. "I really appreciate the help."

"No problem Ruby," Weiss said with mild discomfort in her voice. "Let me know if you need help in any other class as well." With that Ruby let go and Weiss left the team leader to complete her homework.

 **AN**

 **Hey guys. Sorry for the wait. I'd list all of the things that happened but A) that'd be a really long list and B) If we're being honest they're all excuses despite how true they may be. Bright side though is that Chapter 5 is mostly complete and I'm probably going to be uploading that within the next two or three days to make up for the wait for this chapter. Aside from that this is the first time I've written a combat scene for a story of my own so let me know how you enjoyed that. Any and all criticism is appreciated. Especially constructive criticism. Hope it was worth the wait at least. Have a good one everybody! Reviews are always appreciated.**

 **Shaded out.**


	5. An Unhealthy Truth

Ruby felt nervous. Of course she had been nervous plenty of times before. The first time she had officially met Professor Goodwitch and Professor Ozpin as well as the ride to Beacon being the most recent examples. The thing was, she was more nervous now than she had ever been before. Ozpin had called her to his office and she had no idea why. Or that's what she told herself. In all honesty she had an idea as to why she was on her way to the headmaster's office. She thought she was being expelled because of her health. Who had ever heard of a sickly huntress anyway? Her steps grew increasingly hesitant as she neared the elevator that would take her up to his office. The one good thing about this situation is that Yang wasn't here to tease her. Weiss and Blake would try and support her in some way, but Yang had this annoying habit of trying to tease a person until they forgot about their problems. Ruby could count on her fingers how many times she'd seen that work.

The silver-eyed girl was almost relieved that professor Goodwitch was there at the elevator to greet her, until she realized that meant that the teacher would be present as well. 'Great,' Ruby thought to herself. 'The two people who were there to accept me get to be there to expel me.' With her head hanging she approached the strict teacher.

"Is something wrong, Miss Rose?" Glynda asked as she looked up from her scroll.

"I'm just… afraid of why I'm here. I haven't done anything wrong have I?" Ruby asked quietly.

The small smile that Glynda gave was almost enough to encourage Ruby. "You're not in trouble if that's what you're asking," the older woman responded while leading Ruby into the elevator. "It's just that professor Ozpin and I have some questions that we'd like to ask you. Unfortunately he has an unprecedented amount of paperwork so he had to have you come to his office."

Ruby waited for the elevator doors to close all the way before speaking. "You mean about my health?" She asked while staring straight ahead. Her voice now at its normal volume.

"That would be correct."

Ruby sighed at the professor's answer. "Am I getting kicked out?"

"No," Glynda answered as the elevator came to a stop. "We're just going to ask some questions."

The teacher and student duo both walked forward after the elevator doors opened. Walking into the room Ruby took a quick glance at the room around her. Above her head there were giant rotating gears that cast shadows on the floor of the office. In front of her sat Ozpin at his desk, staring at her with a neutral expression. Behind the headmaster were giant windows that spanned the entire wall and gave a beautiful view of the majority of the school grounds.

"Hello, Miss Rose," Ozpin said in greeting. "How has Beacon been treating you?"

"Beacon has been amazing, sir," Ruby said enthusiastically. "I've learned so much and been able to participate in some amazing field trips and sparring sessions. I also have an awesome team that supports me and is helping me to grow and become stronger."

"That's good," Ozpin responded with a small smile at the scythe user's enthusiasm. "Now … I'm sure that Glynda has told you why you're here." Upon receiving a nod from Ruby he continued. "When we first admitted you to Beacon you made it sound like you had health issues that would make us question admitting you. Now, we have noticed that you're a relatively sickly person compared to most of the students here, however… we haven't noticed anything that would make us question your admittance. Would you like to expand on this?"

Ruby let her head drop as she started her response. "Well you see, Professor… According to the doctors I should be dead." She then raised her head and looked at the shocked faces of the two teachers in front of her. "I have an as of yet unidentified disease. It's not contagious and it has the symptoms of several other diseases and yet I don't have any of those diseases. The doctors say that I'm not the only case of ever having this particular unknown disease… however I'm the only one that's survived this long with it."

The silence that followed her statement made Ruby incredibly nervous as she awaited the headmaster's response. Not daring to do anything other than stare at the floor in front of her feet as the headmaster decided her fate, she didn't notice the other teacher in the room draw closer to her. So focused on what was to be said from Ozpin, Ruby failed to notice Glynda approach and give her a motherly hug that left her truly confused.

"What would these symptoms be Miss Rose?" Came the eventual question.

Ruby looked up at Professor Ozpin with confusion evident on her face. "Well," she began hesitantly. "I have a weakened immune system, so I get sick more often than most people. Though that's the least severe of my symptoms. I'm also prone to random bouts of extreme pain and/or fatigue that can last days at a time and generally speaking, about once every three or four months, I get so sick that I can't do anything other than lay down and try to get over it."

"I see," Ozpin said while still giving her a neutral stare. "I can see why you'd think that would affect our decision to accept you," he said. He paused after a moment to contemplate what he should do next. The silence that filled the room made Ruby nervous once again. She was certain that she was about to be kicked out. She was about to just say her goodbyes and walk out when Ozpin spoke up and said , "why do you want to become a huntress despite your illness?"

"Because I want to positively affect as many people's lives as possible," came the instinctual response from the caped girl.

"Well," Ozpin said, while giving a slight nod in acceptance of her answer. "I see no reason to take that opportunity away from you. You will stay at Beacon… however you need to tell your teammates about your illness."

"Yes Professor Ozpin," Ruby responded with a little hesitance. "I'm guessing I'm dismissed?"

"You are. Have a good day Miss Rose."

As Ruby turned to walk back toward the elevator, she tried to figure out how she'd tell her teammates about her illness. Not even Yang knew about it. She was so distracted by her own thoughts that she didn't even notice Glynda get in the elevator with her.

"Miss Rose," the teacher's words brought Ruby out of her thoughts. "I want you to know that the teachers are here to help you. If there's anything we can do let us know."

"I know Professor Goodwitch," Ruby responded with the most convincing smile she could manage. "I have my team though, and they're amazing people who worry about me far more than they should."

"That's good to hear."

The rest of the elevator ride passed in silence, and Ruby went back to attempting to plan her up and coming conversation with her friends. After a minute or so of silence the elevator came to a stop at the ground floor and the doors opened. Ruby stepped out of the elevator and gave a polite goodbye to Professor Goodwitch before walking back to her dorm in silence. The entire way her thoughts were racing. How would her friend react? Would they start avoiding her because she'd eventually die? Ruby didn't think they would but that's always a possibility. Would Yang be pissed? That's almost a definite yes. Yang would most definitely not appreciate the fact that she's been lied to since they were children. When Ruby got to her dorm room, she just stood there and stared at the door for a couple of minutes, trying to gather up the courage to talk to her friends.

Ruby slowly reached toward the doorknob and opened the door, before entering and closing the door behind her. She looked around to see her teammates all looking at her with various expressions on their faces. Yang looked at her with both confusion and concern written clearly on her face. Blake looked at her with a little bit of sadness. Likely fearing what Ruby herself had originally feared was going to happen, and Weiss was looking at her with mild concern.

"It's okay guys," Ruby said to her teammates. "They just wanted to ask some questions. On a side note though… Professor Goodwitch is surprisingly nice."

"That's good, Rubes," Yang said excitedly while jumping forward to hug her sister. "I was worried that they were going to be upset with your health issues."

"Well," Ruby said slowly. "That is why they called me there, but they decided that my reasons for coming to Beacon were noble, and that mixed with the fact that I'm really strong made them decide to keep me."

"So you almost got kicked out?" Blake asked with wide eyes, as she stared at her team leader.

Ruby laughed awkwardly in response before nodding her head. "But I'm still here! So no need to worry guys."

"You're lucky you managed to convince them to let you stay," Weiss said as she walked up to Ruby. As she drew close Weiss brought a hand forward and pointed a finger at Ruby. "What would our team do without its dolt of a leader?"

Ruby put on an innocent smile as she stepped around Weiss' arm and closer to her white-haired teammate. "I dunno… follow all of your orders without fail?" She said in a questioning tone as she stared at Weiss. When Weiss tried to sputter a denial the red-tipped brunette burst out laughing before saying, "Admit it though. You'd enjoy giving us orders every now and then," in between spurts of laughter.

"I'd enjoy no such thing," Weiss rejected indignantly. "I enjoy treating you guys as friends."

Ruby's smile widened, "well then I'm glad to be your friend Weiss." She then gave her partner a quick hug before walking around and doing the same to Blake and Yang.

At that moment Ruby decided that she couldn't tell her team about the seriousness of her medical condition just yet. So instead she settled to just have a friendly chat with her team, celebrating the small victory that allowed her to stay in Beacon. The group of friends stayed up late into the night talking to each other and celebrating the fact that they get to remain a team.

Later that night as Ruby laid in her bed waiting for herself to fall asleep she had a thought. 'I need to have someone here to support me when I tell them. I guess I'll have to call Uncle Qrow."

The next morning was a Saturday, and Ruby woke up early to find that the rest of her team was still sleeping. Being the first one awake on her team was an odd feeling for the silver-eyed girl. Usually both Weiss and Blake would be awake early, even on Saturdays. As she got up and looked at her teammates, she realized just how much sleep the two must have given up in order to celebrate their continued time together as a team. A smile on her face at the thought, she left the room to find a quiet place to make a call.

It took Ruby about thirty minutes to find a part of the school garden that she felt was secluded enough to make a call to her uncle, without being overheard. So taking out her scroll she looked through her contacts and found her uncle in the list. Her finger hesitated over the call button before actually pressing it and the scroll started ringing. It didn't take long for the recipient of the call to answer with a gruff "what's up squirt?"

Ruby, not having expected her uncle to actually answer, took a few seconds to respond with, "Uncle Qrow! How're you doing?"

"I'm doing good," the voice of a slightly drunk man in his thirties responded. "Just relaxing a little bit after having completed a rough mission. How're you doing?"

"I'm doing good?" The silver-eyed girl replied with a questioning tone, while moving to sit on the ground. "I think I am anyway. I told Professor Ozpin about my medical condition and he told me that I can stay, but I need to tell my team. Qrow… Yang's on my team. We've been telling her that it's just a basic immunodeficiency for years. I can't even think about how she'll respond."

"What're you calling me for?" Qrow asked quizzically. "It's not that I don't care about your problems Ruby but I don't know how I can affect this."

"Well… I was actually wondering," Ruby started happily. "You know how you owe me for helping you hide from the Principal at signal that one time?"

"You want me to tell your team?"

"No… nothing like that… however I would really appreciate having some moral support from someone who already knows, when I do tell my team."

The silence that followed Ruby's request was almost unbearable for the energetic girl. She was certain that her Uncle was busy, but she hoped beyond reason that he'd be able to spend at least a couple of minutes at Beacon to help her out. For a moment she thought he had just hung up on her, but his eventual sigh disproved that assumption. "I can spend tomorrow at Beacon… but you better be ready to tell them right when I get there. 'Cause the first thing we're going to do is tell them… and then we can hang out a little bit. I might even be able to get a friend to come with me."

Ruby sprung to her feet in joy. "Thank you Uncle Qrow!" She said enthusiastically into her scroll. "I'll see you tomorrow!" She waited until she heard her uncle respond with a gruff goodbye, before she hung up the scroll and sprinted back to her dorm room. When she got there she was face to face with a really confused Weiss who had an equally confused Blake looking over her shoulder.

"Heya guys!" Ruby said quickly. "Is Yang still here?"

"I'm over here Rubes. What's got you so excited?" The blond said from her position in a corner of the room.

"Uncle Qrow is coming here tomorrow to spend the day with us!" The shorter girl said dashing over to her sister and giving her a hug.

"That's awesome Rubes," Yang said equally as excited.

As Weiss and Blake stood by the doorway the two couldn't help but acknowledge the fact that when she was healthy, you would never be able to imagine Ruby as ever being sick. The girl was simply to happy and energetic to give off the idea that she was sickly. Either way though, she was their team leader and despite some differences of opinion, neither of them would have it any other way. With that thought the two left to go get breakfast, leaving the apparently celebrating sisters to continue their celebration of the upcoming visit from their uncle.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys how's it going? So… while I was writing this chapter I realized that if I was just a little more descriptive then I would be able to double the size of my chapters. So for the benefit of giving you guys more material to read, as well as hopefully improving the quality of my story, I'll work on being more descriptive. Other than that how'd you guys enjoy the chapter? What has so far been the most memorable scene of the story? If you have questions about why Yang was kept out of the loop or why she hasn't forced someone to tell her… she was effectively force fed the lie that Ruby has a simple immunodeficiency since she was a child so she has accepted that as a fact. As is the chapter stands at around 2.5k words without the A/N so it's a little shorter than was the goal but I couldn't continue the conversation with Qrow for as long as I had originally planned. I couldn't continue the Ozpin conversation as long as I wanted to either. But still… it's a decent length considering the length of my past chapters. Also an awesome person volunteered to be my Beta-Reader so that should increase the quality of the story. Nyway Have a good one guys. Please leave a review with your opinion and any constructive criticisms you can think of.**

 **P.S. I originally wrote this sentence but had to replace it 'cause one of my friend said it was too sophisticated**

 **"So intent on awaiting her imminent expulsion was she that she failed to notice Glynda approach to give her a hug that made her freeze in incomprehension."**


	6. A Roses Discomfort

It was early morning at Beacon and already team RWBY's dorm was full of excitement. Ruby was excitedly dashing around the room getting ready and making sure everyone knew that 'the world's best uncle' was going to be visiting them. Yang was just as excited but had settled for simply telling stories to Blake and Weiss about some adventures she had had with said uncle. The two team members who didn't know the man named Qrow were both stunned. Neither of the sisters were morning people, and yet here they were more excited and energetic than Blake or Weiss had ever seen them. The commotion lasted until Ruby got a message on her scroll, which was a little under an hour after the two actually woke up.

"That's uncle Qrow," Ruby said as she bolted out of the dorm with her semblance. Effectively destroying any chance the others had of following her.

"Well… it looks like he's finally here," Yang said with excitement in her voice.

"Why are you guys so happy that your uncle's here?" Weiss asked with a hint of confusion in her voice. "I mean I know he's your uncle and everything, but is there a particular reason that you're this excited?"

"I guess it wouldn't make sense to most people," Yang responded thoughtfully. "When Ruby was young, her mom, Summer, died while on a mission to hunt grimm. Dad … well dad didn't take it too well, so Qrow raised us for a while. When dad regained his senses, at least to a degree, uncle Qrow stepped back and went back to being a really busy person … which has limited our contact with him. So the two of us treasure each and every time we get to meet him."

"Well that makes sense," Weiss said after a moment of thought before looking at herself. "I was so confused by the actions of you and your sister that I haven't taken the time to get presentable." Weiss then took a change of clothes and her brush, and walked into the bathroom.

"Are you going to change as well?" Yang asked as she turned to look at Blake, who was still sitting in her bed. "Or do you plan on meeting our uncle in your robe?"

"I'm going to change," Blake said calmly, used to this kind of teasing from the blond haired girl. "But not with you in the room. So leave for a few minutes."

Yang left the room with a grin on her face and waited for the other two to finish getting ready for the day, before re-entering the room. When she re-entered the room she saw both Weiss and Blake sitting at their respective desks, doing some homework from the day before. With a groan she realized that Doctor Oobleck had, once again, issued an essay to be written over the weekend. She wasn't necessarily bad at writing these kind of essays, she'd been taught about the history of Remnant for most of her life, however, she hated the actual process of writing. Something about writing seemed to be too slow and irritating to be useful in her opinion. Though if both Weiss and Blake were going to work on it right now, she might as well work on it too. With that thought in her mind she sat at her own desk and got to work as well.

"We won't be able to finish this before Ruby comes back with our uncle. You know that right?" Yang asked as she started writing.

"Yes but we might as well get started now. I have a feeling that hanging out with your uncle is going to take up a large portion of the day," Weiss responded without looking up from her paper.

"What she said," Blake added as she actually took the time to look at Yang. "Besides it's not like we have anything else that can easily be interrupted and saved for later."

* * *

When Ruby got to Beacon's air docks, she scanned frantically for her uncle and upon finding him, charged right into him, while also wrapping him in a hug. The taller man she tackled seemed to stagger a bit before regaining his balance and patting her on the head. The two of them stood there in silence for a moment before a woman's voice was heard from behind the man with greying black hair that Ruby had identified as her uncle.

"As much as this is a touching reunion," the voice started. "I've missed the little Ruby just as much as you have, Qrow. Even though you'll never admit it out loud."

As Ruby listened to the voice she looked up at Qrow and asked, "And why would you never admit to missing me?"

Qrow unwrapped Ruby's arms and took a step back, his eyes showing just a hint of caution in them as he chose his response. "Well you see, Ruby," he said while also moving to the side to reveal the person behind him. "A man has to keep up an image." As he finished moving to the side Ruby could see the person who'd been behind her uncle. Raven Branwen. A woman Ruby had seen a limited amount of times in her life, but she truly enjoyed every time she was able to meet the woman. Raven was exceptionally busy, even more so than Qrow, but whenever she visited her former husband's home, she always made Ruby feel like the young girl was the most important person on the planet.

"Raven," the silver-eyed girl exclaimed as she shot forward into the black-haired woman. "I've missed you so much ... It's been five years."

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit, Ruby," Raven responded as she gave Ruby a warm hug. "Luckily I had just finished an assignment when Qrow told me you needed help. So I'm here for you now."

"Thank you, Raven," Ruby said while stepping back from the hug, before getting noticeably sadder. "I suppose you two want to get … my confession to my team out of the way first?"

"I told you I would," Qrow responded.

"Yes, Ruby," Raven said calmly. "Let's get that out of the way and spend the rest of the day on happier things."

"Okay," Ruby said, drawing out the word as she turned around and started walking. "The rest of team RWBY is back at the dorm. Follow me! Also they're all girls so you don't have to beat up any boys for being stupid or anything."

"I'm not worried about having to beat up people for being stupid, Ruby," Qrow said after taking a quick swig from his canteen. "I've trained you to do that yourself."

"I've done it too," Ruby said thoughtfully, earning the attention of both of the adults that were following her. "His name's Cardin Winchester. He's just your generic bully and I don't like him. So I kicked his butt in a sparring class."

"That's my niece," Qrow said as he reached over to ruffle the red-tipped brunette's hair. "Just don't make too many enemies. No matter how weak they are, enemies are always bad stuff."

Ruby hummed softly in acknowledgment of her uncle's advice, before batting his hand away from her head. It was time for her to focus on what she needed to do, and as much as she'd love to be distracted from her task; she couldn't afford it. So the rest of the trip to the dorm passed in silence. When they finally arrived at the dorm, Ruby took a quick, calming breath before opening the door and walking in with the most convincing smile she could muster on her face.

"Hey guys meet my Uncle Qrow," Ruby said as she entered the room, gaining the attention of her team and causing both Blake and Weiss to stand up from their desks. "And Yang … we have a second guest as well!" As Ruby finished her statement, Raven walked into the room behind Ruby and Qrow.

"So this is your team," Qrow said indifferently. "Please tell me you guys don't stay up all night talking about cute boys."

"Of course not!" Ruby said while attempting to hide her face from the others.

"Well at least now we know who's responsible for Yang's teasing," Weiss said as she sighed and walked forward to introduce herself. "I'm Weiss Schnee. Ruby's partner. Nice to meet you"

"I'm Blake Belladonna," Blake said, while also walking forward. "I'm Yang's partner."

"Nice to meet you two," Raven said in response. "Now, Ruby … would you like to tell them?"

"Tell us what?" Weiss asked, a confused look crossing her face as she looked from Raven to Ruby.

"So… there's actually something I've been keeping from you guys," Ruby said while looking at the floor. "It's … about my health. You guys remember how I told you I have an immunodeficiency?"

"Of course we do, Ruby," Weiss answered, earning a small nod of agreement from Blake.

Ruby took a deep breath. "Well, that's not the full truth," she said while still looking at the ground. "I actually have an unidentified disease that … if no cure is found for it, will kill me."

Ruby listened for their reactions. Small shocked gasps came from her friends and sister as they realized the true extent of her illness. She heard both Weiss and Blake take steps forward as her sister Yang took a step back. She couldn't afford to let the others be sad. Not on a day where both Qrow and Raven were here to visit. So she put on her most convincing smile and looked up.

"It's not that big a deal guys. I'm not going to die anytime soon!" She said with a level of enthusiasm that convinced her teammates that she was genuinely okay with it. "Besides, they might find a cure for it before I die, right?"

"Right," Weiss said stepping forward to place a comforting hand on Ruby's shoulder. "What's your disease called? I might be able to convince my dad to donate money to a group that's researching it."

Ruby laughed awkwardly upon hearing Weiss' question. "Well… it doesn't have a name yet. It's really rare. So rare that I'm only the seventh person in recorded medical history to have it. Yet the doctors are apparently planning on naming it the Wilting Rose Syndrome."

It was then that Ruby looked past Weiss and Blake to see Yang looking at her as though the blond had been betrayed. Ruby stepped past her two teammates and continued walking forward until she was directly in front of her sister. After wrapping her arms around Yang she said, "I could never find a good time to tell you. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, sis," the lilac-eyed brawler responded as she wrapped her arms around Ruby. "I probably would have freaked out … Well I guess I'm kinda freaking out right now. Promise me you're not keeping anything else from me?"

"I'm keeping my crush from you," Ruby said mischievously.

Yang pushed her sister back so they stood at arm's length from each other. "You have a crush?" She asked with a glint in her eyes. "Ooh I'm going to have to find this out."

"Well you'll have to find out a little later," Ruby said as we walked back to the doorway. "It's been forever since I've seen Raven and I wanna spend some time with her. You wanna come with Yang?"

Yang sighed. "No. Someone needs to keep an eye on Qrow and make sure he doesn't tell any embarrassing stories. I'll see you later Rubes. Have a good one, mom. Will we see you later?"

"Thanks, Yang," Raven said as she walked out of the room with her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "And yes, I'll be back later."

As the two left, they walked down the hallway in silence. The two didn't talk to each other as they walked, but simply enjoyed being in each other's presence. After a couple of minutes of walking the two ended up in the gardens of Beacon and stopped walking. Ruby moved to sit down next to a bed of roses and looked up at Raven, who had chosen to sit on a nearby bench.

"That went a lot better than I thought it would," Ruby said with forced cheer, earning a disapproving look from Raven.

"You might be able to trick Weiss and Blake with your forced cheer, but you won't trick me or Qrow," Raven said softly. "I'm actually upset that they didn't notice that your smile was forced."

"Raven-" Ruby began only to be cut off by Raven.

"No, Ruby. They're your friends and your team. How're you supposed to be able to rely on them in some of the most intense situations that you can imagine, if they can't even tell when you're nervous or upset."

"Mom," Ruby said, the word making Raven freeze, as it did every time Ruby called Raven 'mom'. "Weiss and Blake are still getting to know me. You can't expect them to know every time I'm deceiving them. They're my friends and they care about me. Not only that, but being with them makes me happy. Isn't that enough?"

The black-haired woman sighed. "You're right, Ruby. That should be enough. I was just hoping that they'd be able to be there for you… even when you don't necessarily want them to. I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize, mom," Ruby said as she got up and walked over to where Raven was sitting. "Just trust my friends a little more please."

"I'm not your mom Ruby… Summer is."

"Hmm," Ruby hummed lightly. "Summer is my mommy. You're my mom. Two fundamentally different people. She died protecting me. You raised me by example, even if you weren't here that much."

After Ruby said that, she sat down next to Raven, leaned into the older woman's side, and wrapped her arms around her. The two sat there in silence for the better part of an hour before deciding that it was time to go elsewhere and getting up to wander around Beacon, while talking to each other.

* * *

 **Earlier**

After Ruby and Raven left the room, Qrow turned to the others and glared at Blake and Weiss. He had been able to hide his annoyance in the presence of Ruby but the second she was gone he no longer had a reason to hold back. Yang was still here, but she didn't appear to be in much of a position to defend her two friends.

"You two are idiots, you know that?" He asked harshly at the two members of team RWBY.

Weiss visibly flinched at Qrow's statement before responding with, "What? What'd we do wrong?"

"Let me ask you a question. Did you actually think that Ruby was genuinely smiling?"

"Wait… was that smile fake?" Blake asked as she took a step forward.

"Of course it was," Qrow stated. "What? You think it was easy for her to tell her best friends that she's dying? How could you claim to be her friends and not notice that her smile was fake?" As he ranted at them, both Weiss and Blake looked at the floor with small tears forming in their eyes. "She's supposed to trust you with her life. How are you supposed to earn that trust if you can't tell when she's faking her happiness?"

"We can learn," Weiss said defiantly. "We will make mistakes, but we can improve and eventually earn that level of trust."

"Exactly," Blake said softly from where she stood. "We made a mistake. That just means that we just have to try harder and get to know her better. We may not know her as well as you do… but we'll never abandon her."

Qrow smiled lightly. "That's a start at least," he said. "I'd apologize that I got angry… but I'm not sorry. However I'm a little happier that you guys are willing to try for Ruby. She's one of the best people I've ever met. As long as you don't hurt her, we'll be fine."

After that statement Yang decided to get up and get a board game that the group could play until Raven and Ruby got back. When Ruby and Raven got back they instantly joined in the games and the games continued for most of the day until Raven and Qrow had to leave. After bidding the two farewell, team RWBY went back to their homework.

Weiss was so focused on her homework that she didn't notice when Ruby placed a small bag of cookies on her desk. When she noticed however she did a double take before turning around to look at her team leader, who was humming to herself on her bed.

"Ruby… did you give me a bag of cookies?" Weiss asked quietly.

"Yup!" Ruby responded energetically. "I gave Blake one too."

Weiss turned around to see Blake looking questioningly at a bag of cookies on her desk. "As much as I appreciate a gift of cookies… why are you giving us cookies?"

Ruby jumped down from her bed and looked at her two teammates. "Well … I feel like I probably made you sad earlier today. Plus Qrow isn't always the nicest. So I wanted to do something that'd make you two happy, and I don't know what your favorite types of candy are. So I grabbed two of my secret stashes of cookies and gave one to both of you."

Weiss stood up from her desk, walked over to Ruby, and gave the shorter team leader a hug. "Ruby, the fact that you trust us makes us happy. You don't need to pay us with cookies," She said softly as she felt another pair of arms wrap Ruby in a hug from behind the team leader. Looking up she saw Blake looking down at her.

"Though the cookies are a delicious payment," Blake said softly. "It's okay Ruby. While your uncle did get mad at us, it was our fault. Thank you for being concerned about us though."

"Aww, look at you guys bonding over there," Yang said from her position on her bed.

"Don't ruin the hug, Yang," Ruby responded. "If you do, I won't get you any ice cream tomorrow."

"As much as I love being hugged by both of you; I need to get back to my homework," Ruby said after a few seconds. The group then went back to their individual homework assignments in companionable silence.

* * *

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys Shaded here. This was an interesting chapter. It took me … 4 hours? To write the final 400 words of it. I'm not sure how that is for you guys but for me that's ridiculously slow. Nyway the return of the cookie stashes and a little bit of Qrow and Raven just to highlight how different this AU is from canon. Hope you all liked it. Please leave a review if you can. Have a good one guys! Also as far a Qrow goes. I understand that he may have been a little harsh but he's upset by two things. 1) Ruby is hiding her sadness from her team 2) her team doesn't notice. So, since he doesn't want to be even remotely harsh to Ruby, he's harsh to her team.  
**


	7. Discovering a Weakness

A couple of days had passed since Ruby had told the rest of her team about the true extent of her illness and Weiss was concerned. She had been trying to keep an eye on Ruby and she had noticed something. For some reason Ruby seemed to be struggling to move around. Whenever she stood up she did it slower than she usually would, and when she went to sit down it ended up as more of a plop than anything else. Other than that Ruby also seemed content to stay sitting in the same spot with much movement or with any of her normal energetic antics. Weiss had started noticing this that morning when team RWBY was on their way to breakfast, Ruby started falling behind her team rather than lead the way.

It didn't seem to be that big a problem. After all Ruby could have just been extra tired that day. However Weiss didn't think that was the case and decided to ask Ruby about it after classes. Unfortunately for the white-haired heiress that would mean that she had to wait until classes actually finished. So it was with liberal application of patience that Weiss waited until classes were over and team RWBY got to their dorm to speak up.

"Ruby could I ask you a question?" Weiss asked politely to earn the shorter girl's attention.

"You just did," Ruby responded with a small smile before continuing with, "but go ahead," while moving to go sit at her desk.

"You seem to be having a … particularly hard time moving around today," the heiress began cautiously. "And I've been wondering if you're just tired or if you're sick."

That statement seemed to gain the attention of both Blake and Yang, who stopped doing what they were doing to listen to Ruby's response. Ruby dropped her head to look at her desk a little bit, before looking back at her partner and smiling lightly.

"I'm sick today," the red-tipped brunette said tiredly. "It's nothing major so you don't really need to worry about it. Thanks for paying attention though. I guess I should explain exactly what my 'Wilting Rose Syndrome' does though."

After receiving a series of encouraging nods from her team, Ruby continued, "There are three main symptoms and a variety of smaller ones that don't really matter. The first main one is that it weakens my immune system. So I'm more vulnerable to getting sick and usually take longer to get over it. Secondly, I'm prone to random … not spurts but rather… extended periods of time, of pain. Like I'll wake up one morning with serious pain pretty much everywhere and it'll stay for anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. The third one is similar to the second. Except instead of pain… it's fatigue. So simply moving around becomes very hard for me to do. That's what's going on right now. I'm just really tired. Which is mildly annoying 'cause I need to go shopping for rounds for Crescent Rose… and maybe buy some cookies for my stashes."

Looking around Ruby saw that her teammates were looking mostly contemplative, which was a lot better than the worried looks she was expecting. She hated to see them worry about her. Though the idea that they were contemplating, probably meant that they were thinking about ways they could take care of her. She'd deal with that later if she needed to.

While waiting for her teammates reactions she spent some extra time studying the looks on Weiss' and Blake's faces. She compared the way Weiss' lips softly hinted at a frown to the way Blake's lips formed a hard line as the two contemplated the information they'd been given. She saw how her white-haired teammate's blue eyes flickered from side to side as she processed information, where her black-haired teammate's amber eyes seemed glued to a spot on the wall. Ruby found it interesting how people can act so differently while doing the same tasks. The team leader also found it mildly amusing that neither of them had yet realized that she was staring at them.

"Wait," Blake said softly. "If you're not feeling well then why not wait until you're feeling better to go shopping?"

"Honestly Blake," Ruby replied with a soft sigh. "This is the least dangerous of the problems I could have. Like I said it's not really something you need to worry about. If it's something you guys need to worry about, you'll know."

"Would you mind if I went with you Ruby?" Weiss asked after a couple of seconds. "I don't actually have anything that I need to buy right now, however there are some things that I'm going to need soon."

"Of course, Weiss," Ruby responded with a small smile. "But don't think I don't know you're trying to make sure I'm really okay and nothing happens to me."

"Why let her then?" Yang said from her position by her desk.

"I may not like having people take care of or worry about me," the silver-eyed girl began. "But in this situation it is actually a good idea to have someone go with me. That and you'll probably worry more if I'm alone. At least this way Weiss can freeze anyone who gets too close."

"Hey!" Weiss said indignantly. "I do not just freeze people for getting too close."

"Yeah I know," Ruby said entirely unphased by the fact that Weiss was glaring at her. "Now let's go Weiss. If we don't move fast it'll be really dark when we get back."

With that Ruby led her white-haired teammate out of the room and closed the door behind them while Blake and Yang stared at the door in mild amusement.

"I thought she said it was hard for her to move," Blake said thoughtfully.

"She's really good at hiding things. A lot better than I ever realized," Yang said sadly. "It's amazing how much I completely missed when we were growing up. What kind of sister am I?"

"She loves you Yang," Blake said soothingly. "She didn't want you to worry. I have been wondering something though."

"What's up?" Yang asked while giving a questioning look towards Blake who responded by turning in her chair to face Yang.

"The other day when Qrow and Raven came to visit," the black-haired girl started. "Ruby seemed to be super excited about both of them, but you only really seemed to care about Qrow. You actually seemed pretty cold to Raven."

Yang sighed lightly before responding, "Yeah… I don't like my mom. I mean like moms are supposed to raise their kids, right?"

At Blake's questioning nod, Yang continued, "well she didn't! Ever since I was a baby she's been going on these top secret missions that keep her away from us for years at a time. The most she's ever spent with us, was one time when I was nine years old, she spent a whole week at home before going on another mission. She's so busy that she actually told Dad that she doesn't expect him to stay loyal to someone who's never there. Which is why the two got a divorce and he married Summer."

"Of course her missions are important right?" Yang asked rhetorically. "They'd have to be to keep her away from her family that she's supposed to care about. Either that or she doesn't care about us."

"I'm sure she cares about you Yang," Blake said quietly. "I mean did you see how much she tried to make the two of you happy yesterday. Not just Ruby. You as well."

"Of course I noticed that Blake," the blond responded slowly. "It's just… I dunno. I've spent so much of my life thinking that she didn't care about us. That she's abandoned us, that I don't think anyone can convince me otherwise. Believe me, Ruby's tried. For all that I've tried to convince her that Raven's abandoned us, Ruby has always adored the woman. I guess where I decided she didn't care, Ruby decided that she should treasure each and every moment with her." As Yang said that last sentence she leaned back and looked at the ceiling.

"I feel like Ruby treasures each and every moment, period," Blake said as she got up and walked over to Yang. "I mean she seems to love each and every moment she gets with any of us. I had just assumed that her normal excitement to be with friends and family got enhanced by the fact that she missed them."

Yang laughed. "You know … that does sounds like Ruby. However you can't deny that she absolutely adores Raven. You know what else? I haven't seen her this happy in a long time. She really loves having friends that she can count on. I suppose that means you and Weiss are amazing in her eyes."

Blake found herself stunned for a moment before responding, "What about team JNPR?"

"Nah," Yang responded with a shrug. "She can't count on them. They don't know about her illness. Just like she couldn't count on me for the longest time, but now she can."

"Do you think she'll ever tell team JNPR?"

"Probably. Though she'll most likely want at least one of us to be there for support. Like how Qrow and Raven were there when she told us."

"Then we'll be there."

"Dang right we will."

* * *

Ruby and Weiss had just finished shopping at a dust munitions store for rounds for Crescent Rose and were taking a break on a bench. Weiss had volunteered to hold the bag of rounds, and Ruby had only allowed it because Weiss promised to buy some of the cookies later.

"How're you holding up, Ruby?" Weiss asked as she looked at her partner.

"I'm doing good," Ruby responded. "Just a little longer and I'll be ready to go. What do you need to buy?"

"I just need some shampoo and toothpaste. Maybe a new toothbrush," Weiss answered.

"So if we go about half a mile east," Ruby began. "There's a supermarket that would be on our left, and across the street is a bakery that has amazing cookies. That's almost two birds with one stone."

"And that'd be closer to the air docks for the bullhead ride back to Beacon," Weiss said thoughtfully. "Well let me know when you're ready to walk again."

"Mkay," Ruby responded quietly before looking up at the sky. "Thank you Weiss… for being my friend and caring about me. I don't think I've ever told your or Blake but… other than Yang or my other family… you two are my first real friends I've ever had." The small team leader then wrapped one arm around her white haired teammate in a small hug.

"Ruby," Weiss began while slightly leaning into the hug. "You're the most stubborn, infuriatingly optimistic, and annoying person I know. Yet somehow you're also the cutest, most amazing, and caring person I know. I have a feeling that you'd have found a way to be my friend even if we weren't on the same team."

Ruby leaned away from Weiss and looked up at her. "I'm the cutest person you know? Do you need to tell me something?"

"W-what?" Weiss stuttered. "Ruby that's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Of course it isn't," Ruby said after a short spurt of giggling. "But it's fun to mess with you a little bit. That and...I'm cute? I don't think anyone's ever called me that before… and… What did you mean by it?"

"You know how when you look at a cat, and it just makes you feel a little happier?" Weiss asked rhetorically. "It's kinda like that. The way you act, who you are, it just makes the day brighter for everyone. Not in like an 'oh she's so attractive, looking at her is amazing,' or a, 'I have a huge crush on her,' type of way but just in a 'her presence makes me forget my problems' kinda way. I talked to Blake about it and she said she feels the same way. It's kinda weird 'cause even with the way I described it, it can be taken the wrong way… I just hope that you understand what I'm trying to say."

"Don't worry, Weiss, I get it," Ruby said with a small smile. "Thanks for the compliment. Think we could go shopping like this more again sometime? I like being able to spend time with my friends. Though maybe next time I should go with Blake. Yang hates shopping, so these trips are probably the only time where I'll be able to reliably leave her teasing behind. Just imagine if she were here for you calling me cute"

"Are you going to let me live that down?" Weiss asked with a sigh. "And yes we can go shopping whenever you want. Though you'll need to explain your cookie stashes to me someday."

"You're not allowed to live that down," Ruby said happily. "I'm ready to start walking. Hopefully I won't need to take another break until we're back at school, and I have explained them to you before. I like cookies so I stash them so no one else can get them."

With that, the two got up and started walking down the street to continue their shopping. The walk passed in companionable silence and they were able to complete their shopping without incident. The two then went back to Beacon, put away, or hid, everything that they purchased and went to sleep.

* * *

A/N

Hey everyone how's it going? I'm just going to state that having a life kinda sucks… I mean if it weren't for the fact that not having a life would mean I'm dead… then I'd probably just settle for not having a life. Luckily though having a life means that I can find time to write and stuff. Nyway I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Have a good one!


	8. A Good Friend Never Leaves

Ruby was particularly happy that Saturday morning after her shopping trip with Weiss. She was still suffering from her fatigue attack, so she couldn't express it like she normally would. Bouncing and running around everywhere was really hard when you were so tired you could barely move in the first place. However the constant smile on her face and the enthusiasm with which she was attempting to wake her sister up spoke volumes of her levels of happiness. The young red-caped girl was currently humming brightly after a failed attempt to wake her sister by pulling the blankets off of the older blonde's bed. Meanwhile Weiss and Blake were both standing on the other side of the room watching their team leader's repeated failures.

"Ruby," the raven haired teammate began. "She's not awake yet. Why do you sound like you've won?"

Blake's question earned a bright smile from Ruby. A smile that failed to mask the mischievous glint that had come across the girl's silver eyes. "Why thank you for asking Blake! It's because that was only phase one! Now I need a bucket of water."

It was at this moment that Weiss began to walk toward Ruby. Her pure white hair falling freely behind her back, as she had yet to put it in her standard ponytail. Her icy blue eyes looking at Ruby with concern. A feeling that was mirrored in Blake's amber eyes as they looked at Ruby from over Weiss' shoulder. "Aren't you still struggling with that fatigue attack?" Weiss asked, earning a questioning nod from Ruby.

"I'll get the bucket of water," Blake responded before anything else could be said. "Though I am blaming you that I'm even considering using a bucket of water to wake someone up."

Ruby giggled lightly at Blake's comment before giving the taller girl a hug. "It's a great idea and you know it."

"Effective? Yes," Weiss began in response, her tone mildly exasperated. "Great? No. There is nothing great about this idea, Ruby. As a matter of fact I find it lacking in a variety of ways. Yet somehow I feel like you'd go through with this idea even if we tried to stop you. Probably even wake Blake or myself in such a way as well."

"Weiss!" Ruby responded while breaking her hug with Blake and doing her best to look both offended as well as entirely innocent. "I would never disturb your beauty sleep in such an unrefined and crude manner… I'd probably sit on you. That should work I think. As for Blake… you could probably poke her, repeatedly, in the side and she'd wake up."

A short, stunned silence followed that statement as the two teammates stared at their leader. "You've… thought about this before haven't you?" Blake asked as she started moving to get a bucket of water.

"Of course! What if I had planned out an awesome girls day out and you two weren't waking up?"

"Have you planned out an 'awesome girls day out'?" Weiss asked with hesitation apparent in her voice. She gave Ruby a cold stare when the younger girl tried to give her a 'I have no idea what you're talking about' look. After a few moments Ruby seemed to deflate and nodded.

"I didn't want to spoil it for you guys," the red-tipped brunette said sadly. "But I've been planning the perfect day that all of you would love, and while I may not be in the best shape right now, I was hoping you guys would be willing to spend the day with me today."

"I'd rather say 'no' and have you rest today," Blake said as she re-entered the room; bucket of water held carefully by both of her hands.

"But, Blake," Ruby said while drawing out the name 'Blake'. "It's not that bad. If you won't let me have fun when I'm tired, then what are you guys going to do when I'm in pain or actually sick?"

After a moment of careful though Blake sighed. "I guess you're right," she said after a short sigh before walking over to Yang's bed. "So I'm supposed to dump water on Yang?"

"Well," Ruby said slowly. "I wanted to… but you're already over there so go ahead."

Blake nodded before lifting up the bucket. Her amber eyes showing just the slightest glint of amusement as she upended the bucket and showered her partner with water. Blake jumped back as Yang, now soaked with water, almost flew out of her bed screaming bloody murder as having a bucket of water dumped on her apparently wasn't her favorite way to wake up. When Yang go to her feet and was fully awake she looked around, and when she spotted the bucket in Blake's hands she turned her lilac eyes to glare at her partner in betrayal.

Blake placed the bucket into the hands of a smiling Ruby and walked over to her desk to sit down. "It was her idea, and she was going to do it. I decided to spare her the effort."

Upon hearing that Yang turned to glare at Ruby, but found that she couldn't stay angry when looking at the smiling face of her younger sister. No one ever could, the girls happiness was simply too infectious. "Alright Rubes. What's up?"

"We're going to have an awesome day out!" Ruby answered excitedly.

"You sure Rubes?"

"Of course I'm sure," Ruby responded, her smile never leaving her face. "I'm not gonna let a little bit of fatigue stop us from having the best Saturday ever!"

"Alright," the blonde said with a small smile. Yang then grabbed a change of clothes and walked into the bathroom to take a shower.

Team RWBY spent the next couple of hours preparing for the day. Despite the fact that three of the team members had no idea what they were doing, everyone was excited to spend the day together. Ruby had this effect of making everyone's day better. So if they got to spend the day doing something that she had planned, then all the better. Though Weiss was a little concerned about Ruby's plans. She respected the younger girl, but the team leader didn't always think about what everyone else likes to do.

When the four teammates were ready to go Ruby led the group out of the dorm room and they started walking toward the air docks for to get on a bullhead towards Vale. They hadn't gotten too far when Ruby spotted a brown-haired rabbit faunus sitting on a bench. The rabbit faunus was looking at the ground, seemingly on the verge of tears.

"Hey guys," Ruby began quietly while stopping her team. "Isn't that Velvet?"

Blake turned to look at the person Ruby had pointed out before turning back and responding, "Yes it is. Why?"

"Well… she looks sad."

"She does Ruby, but I doubt that there's anything we can do to help her," Weiss responded.

"Hmm," Ruby hummed to herself quietly. "You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up in a couple of minutes. I promise."

After a series of nods Blake, Yang, and Weiss all continued on towards the air docks while Ruby stayed behind. The red-tipped brunette walked towards the rabbit faunus slowly until she stood in front of the distressed girl. She waited there for a few moments to let Velvet say something, but when she realized that the other girl wasn't going to say anything Ruby sad down next to her.

"Velvet?" Ruby asked quietly. "I know we don't know each other very well but… can I help you?"

The brunette faunus shook her head slowly, not even bothering to respond. Ruby felt mildly sad that she couldn't do anything to help the person next to her. Sure they weren't exactly friends but from what she had seen of the brunette girl she was a really nice person. She then realized that this is probably how some of her friends felt when she told them they couldn't help her and remembered the various times they refused to give up and ended up making her happy simply by trying to be there. So she did what she felt best to do. She leaned into Velvet and let herself rest against the taller girl. This seemed to surprise the rabbit faunus as she tensed up before turning her head to look at Ruby in confusion.

"Ruby… what are you doing?" Velvet asked, her voice tinged with sadness.

"I'm sorry," Ruby said softly. "I'm just kinda exhausted right now."

The brown-haired faunus seemed to relax at that statement. "It's okay," she said in response. "I just wasn't expecting it. Are you okay?"

"Better than you are apparently," the smaller girl answered. "In all honesty I'm just exhausted. Nothing too serious and you're comfy so it's helping. Though I only have a couple of minutes before I have to go catch up with my team."

That drew a soft giggle from the older girl. "You're just trying to cheer me up aren't you?"

"If I said 'yes' would it stop working?"

"Probably not," Velvet answered with a small smile. "Thanks Ruby. It's really not something you can help with though, but thanks for cheering me up a little. We should hangout sometime."

"You mean you'd rather be cheered up by someone you can consider a friend rather than a classmate?" Ruby stated more than asked, a small smile forming on her face.

"Well… you're not wrong," was the rabbit faunus' amused reply. "Though you should probably get to where you need to go. Thanks for this though. I'll talk to you after classes on Monday."

"Mkay!" Ruby said happily while slowly standing up. "I'll cya then!"

With that Ruby started walking away from her new potential friend and headed towards her team. When she arrived with a bright smile on her face the others smiled back and waved. After a short conversation and a few laughs, they all boarded the bullhead and headed into vale. Everyone being excited to see what their team leader had planned for the day.

A/N

Hey guys how's it going? This chapter is a little short but that's because I didn't want to separate the things that are going to happen in chapter 9. Assuming that I don't get face wrecked by this storm that's coming my way I will be able to post Chapter 9 within the next three or four days as well. Real Quick shoutout to Blacsparrow and their stories 'In My Sights' and 'Huntress of a Different Caliber' that author is one of several reason I actually got the courage to start actually writing stories and posting them on this website. I say stories plural 'cause I have more that I'm going to write. Nyway real quick questions. What have you guys like most about this story? The idea, writing, depictions of the characters etc. really whatever you've enjoyed. What have you guys liked the least about this story? I kinda wanna know so I can improve my writing hopefully with your input. Nyway have a good one guys!


	9. The Perfect Day

The second their bullhead landed, Ruby led her team off of the bullhead and into the city. Forcing an extra amount of energy into her steps so as to convince them that this day out wasn't taking its toll on her body. Her movements weren't as fast as they would normally be, and while her team eyed her with concern from time to time, the large smile on her face kept them from mentioning anything to her or each other. They walked in companionable silence for around thirty minutes until Ruby stopped in front of a restaurant and turned to her team with a smile.

"I hope you guys are hungry," Ruby said excitedly. "'Cause I was kinda hoping that this could be our first stop."

After receiving three nods of agreement Ruby led them inside, where it was revealed that she had a reservation, and they were all guided to a table. Weiss and Ruby sat down on one side and Blake and Yang on the other. Weiss gave the menu a quick look over before looking at Ruby.

"You took us to a sushi restaurant?" The white haired team member asked.

"Yup!" Ruby answered happily. "Um… You don't have any problems with sushi, do you?"

"Not at all, in fact I like sushi as much as anyone else… except maybe Blake," Weiss responded while looking at the black haired girl in question, who was so focused on the menu that she didn't even hear the remark, let alone respond. "I just didn't expect you or Yang to eat sushi all that much."

"It's funny you mention that," the red-tipped brunette said sheepishly before her sister cut her off.

"We've never had sushi before in our lives," Yang interjected.

"Yang," Ruby said while glaring at her blond sister. "I was going to tell her. Anyway I was kinda hoping that you could help us choose. I have no idea what any of the things on the menu are."

"Well," Weiss began. "Yang might like the dragon roll, while as for you… I'd probably start with a simple Valean roll. Though I'm going to get a volcano roll so if you want to try that just let me know."

"Okay thanks, Weiss!" Ruby responded happily before turning to her sister with a questioning look.

"Yeah I think I'll take your advice on this one," Yang said slowly. "I have no idea what any of these are, despite the fact that they have a description of what's in them."

"However, it may be a little bit of a task to convince Blake to choose just one roll," Weiss said looking at the only member of team RWBY who hadn't said anything.

"Let her get what she wants, Weiss," Ruby said softly. "I've saved up some money for today. As long as she doesn't pig out and ruin one of our later activities, she's fine."

Weiss sighed in response to Ruby's comment. "Alright. However, if she tries to get more than three, I'm going to stop her."

A couple of minutes later their waiter stopped by and took their orders. After that it wasn't long until their food arrived, and the four of them dug in. Each person sharing pieces of their sushi rolls with the others until everyone had tried everything on the table and labeled them in order of what they liked best. Other than requesting pieces of food from each other, they didn't talk too much, preferring to spend their time in companionable silence rather than trying to force a conversation. That was something that team RWBY came to realize early on in their time together. While they all enjoyed talking, especially with each other, there are times where they would rather sit in silence with one another, rather than fill the room with their voices. As a result of this there were times where a person from team JNPR would walk into team RWBY's room and be greeted by a series of waves, rather than a group of people voicing greetings to them.

So it was that they ate in mostly silence, until Blake had a thought while eating the final piece of sushi on the table. "Ruby, I'm kind of wondering why you felt the need to help Velvet. How'd that go by the way?"

Ruby's face lit up in response. "It went great," she said happily. "She was feeling a lot better when I left to catch up to you guys. As for why I felt the need to help her… It's because we all have a limited amount of time to spend alive. I'd rather not let people waste their time by being sad, angry, or really anything negative if I can help it. So I tried to help her, and it worked. I'm even going to hang out with her on Monday, assuming that I'm healthy of course."

Suddenly the young team leader found herself receiving small gestures of support from each of her teammates. Weiss gave her a small hug from the side. Blake reached across the table and put her hand on top of Ruby's, and Yang gave her younger sister a small, comforting smile.

"I knew my little sis was awesome," Yang stated proudly while holding her head up. "I just didn't know how awesome, but now I know, and I get to tell the world all about it."

Ruby ducked her head in embarrassment. "Yaaaaaaaanng," Ruby said pleadingly. "Please don't tell the world about me. I'd much rather just have my friends know about me."

"How are you supposed to make new friends if you don't want other people knowing about you?" Blake asked in response.

"Well I have you guys," Ruby responded. "And I have team JNPR. Why would I need more friends? I have the best people as my friends already."

"It never hurts to have more friends, Rubes," the blond haired team member responded. "Plus, how're you supposed to meet 'the one' if you don't meet new people? Or have you already found 'the one'? You can tell us. I promise that as long as it's not Jaune, I won't beat them up."

"Yang!" Ruby exclaimed as the waiter stopped by to give them their bill. She then paid the bill and used the short gap in the conversation to change the topic, while also leading her team out of the restaurant and through various parts of Vale. Her teammates were all surprised when she lead them into a concert hall, and doubly so when she produced tickets for a show that was about to start.

As they walked to their seats Weiss turned to look at Ruby, "How'd you get those tickets? They've been sold out for weeks!"

Ruby just smiled and answered with, "Well I've been planning this since I was still coughing. Why do you think I was insistent that we have this happen today?" The younger girl then giggled lightly at the looks of amazement she was receiving from her friends. "What? You, Blake, Yang, and I had just become friends. Of course I'm going to try and plan an amazing day that we can all enjoy."

Her team had no response to that so they just found their seats and sat down. It was only a couple of minutes later when the concert started and everyone got caught up in the singing of the single person on stage. Yang gave off the impression that she was bored, with her slouched posture, but those who knew her, knew that she was listening intently. Blake was staring right at the person on stage in amazement as she listened to the persons melodic voice fill the room. Weiss was trying to be analytical. Having performed a few times herself, she wanted to compare herself to the woman on the stage. However every time she did so she came up short. The person on stage was simply amazing.

Ruby was swaying slightly with the music, her eyes closed, and a peaceful smile on her face. After a while she started humming softly as well. She was overjoyed at the moment. The day that she was worried would be an absolute flop had started off amazing and now she got to enjoy some of the best singing she'd ever heard. It wasn't until she heard Weiss humming with her that she realized she'd been humming. Terrified that she was ruining the experience for those around her, she opened her eyes, stopped humming, and looked around worriedly. Her eyes met with those of Weiss and Yang, both of which were to her left, and bowed her head sheepishly.

Ruby felt a hand grasp her right shoulder and turned to see Blake nodding at her encouragingly. It was then that she realized that Weiss was still humming. Though she was still hesitant to continue her humming, she wasn't a singer or anything like that. Blake must have seen the hesitation in Ruby's eyes as the black haired girl started humming softly as well. Surrounded by her three best friends, all of which seemed to want her to start humming again, was enough to make her forget her hesitation. So she closed her eyes and started to hum along once again.

It wasn't until after the concert was over and she was getting quiet words of appreciation and encouragement from the people who were sitting around her, that she realized that she wasn't exactly humming quietly. So she turned to give her team an accusing glare. "You guys didn't tell me I was humming loudly," she said angrily.

"Your humming was beautiful," Weiss responded. "Everyone who's come to talk to you about it has complimented you."

"I agree," Blake added. "If you hadn't told me that you don't know how to sing, I would have though you've been on that stage before. Just from your humming."

Ruby blushed in embarrassment before turning a corner and promptly running into another person. The two of them fell to the ground painfully and remained there until the other members of team RWBY helped the two stand up.

"I'm really sorry," Ruby said apologetically. "I should have been looking where I was going."

"It's not a problem," a girl with bright orange hair and green eyes responded. "I'm A-Okay."

"That's good," Ruby responded. "I'd feel really bad if I'd have hurt you. I'm Ruby, by the way."

"No damage done here," the girl responded with entirely to much energy. "My name's Penny."

"Well, we have to get going," the red-tipped brunette said sadly. "Hope to see you around though!"

"Hope to see you around as well, Ruby," Penny responded.

Ruby then led the team to one of Yang's favorite places in Vale, an arcade. She quickly realized that neither Blake nor Weiss had ever been to an arcade before, so she took turns talking with them off to the side while Yang showed the other one the various games. It was during one such conversation that Blake brought up something she'd been thinking about.

"Hey, Ruby," Blake started as she walked over to her younger friend.

"Hey, Blake, is it Weiss' turn to be educated to the ways of the arcade?" the shorter girl responded with a smile.

"Actually Yang is in the bathroom, I wanted to ask you a question."

"You guys like asking me a lot of questions," Ruby teased in response, before motioning to Blake to go ahead.

"Well, the activities we've done today all seem to be specifically for one of us. The Sushi restaurant for me, the concert for Weiss, and the arcade for Yang. I was wondering what we're going to do for you though, because it's almost night."

Ruby smiled in response. "This entire day is my activity! What could possibly be better than spending time with my friends and watching them smile?"

That response earned a smile from her two teammates before Blake challenged Weiss to a game of air hockey. A challenge that the white-haired heiress accepted. So the two walked over to the air hockey table and began their game. Both of them had a small smile on their faces and they took the time to enjoy the competition with each other. The two battled it out for a little while before something became clear to those involved. Weiss was just a little bit better. Despite having never played the game before, Weiss was better with the angles involved than Blake was. This led to her slowly but surely creating a gap between Blake's score and her own, until all Blake could do was admit defeat. It was then that Ruby hopped up to the air hockey table and challenged Weiss.

"Are you sure you're up for it, Ruby?" Weiss asked with concern.

"I'm always up for a few rounds of air hockey," Ruby responded almost immediately. "Besides, someone needs to put you in your place after that win."

"Alright, you're on," Weiss said after a moment of deliberation.

It took Weiss a total of thirty seconds to realize her mistake. Even without her semblance, Ruby was by far the faster of the two. It was also readily apparent that Ruby had spent quite a bit of time playing this game throughout her life, as she was easily deflecting all of Weiss' attempts to score points. When the score reached 10-0 in Ruby's favor Weiss simply gave up and congratulated Ruby on her win.

"How're you so good at that game?" Blake asked.

"Well, that's easy," Yang said as she walked up to the group. "Air hockey is the only game in the whole arcade that Ruby enjoys."

"So naturally I spent an unhealthy amount of time practicing," Ruby finished for her older sister as she walked up to give Yang a hug. "You can blame her for always dragging me to the arcade."

After that statement a buzzing sound came from Ruby's scroll and she pulled it out to look at it.

"Oh wow," she said softly. "I lost track of time. It's time for us to get going to our final destinations."

With that she led the team, once again, to their next destination. This time though the walk was only a couple of minutes before the team found themselves in the middle of a park walking towards a large basket on top of a blanket.

"Ruby," Yang began. "How'd you get a basket here?"

"I owe Pyrrha and Nora a favor now," was the simple reply from the younger sister.

"Do they know what they were delivering this basket for?"

"Not really," the silver-eyed girl began. "I convinced them I'm trying to woo my crush, because Nora wasn't buying the whole 'I want to have a picnic with my team' thing."

That statement caused the rest of team RWBY to laugh lightly. Each trying to picture Nora's reaction to Ruby explaining that she had a crush. All of them ended up coming to the conclusion that Nora practically dragged Pyrrha along for the ride after realizing the 'noble purpose' of what Ruby was trying to do.

"So," Yang began with a mischievous glint to her eyes. "Who is your crush?"

"No one that you need to worry about Yang," Ruby stated firmly, doing her best to glare at her sister.

The rest of the picnic was filled with laughter and smiles on team RWBY's part. The four friends relishing in each others company, and telling stories about their respective childhoods. Their smiles grew as they learned more and more about each other. Needless to say, Ruby was ecstatic that the day she had been planning for so long ended up being so perfect. So it was while she was watching her friends eat the food she had asked Pyrrha and Nora to bring, that she felt she had accomplished her purpose of making today the best day ever.

A couple of hours later, after everyone had finished eating, Blake looked around nervously before telling everyone she had something she needed to tell them. After receiving questioning and encouraging glances from her teammates she calmed herself down and reached up to undo the bow on her head, revealing her faunus ears. She didn't even have time to announce she was a faunus before she found herself tackled to the ground in a hug.

"They're So Cute!" A high pitched voice squealed into her ears.

"Ruby… stop assaulting our teammate," Weiss said from off to the said.

Ruby quickly got off of Blake and let the amber eyed girl sit up. Blake looked around to see that Ruby was staring at her happily, Yang was looking at her with a small smile, and Weiss seemed a little confused but otherwise okay with the development.

"You guys aren't mad that I've been hiding this from you?"

"Of course not," Ruby answered immediately followed by Yang saying, "nope."

"I'm a little surprised of course," Weiss began cautiously. "Though given my family's history with the faunus people I'm not surprised you hid it from me. I can assure you though, I have no problems with you being a faunus, and I'll try to get over my surprise quickly for your sake."

Blake smiled lightly in response, "Thank you guys."

"Not to spoil the moment or anything," Ruby said softly. "But we need to get back to Beacon, and I don't have the energy to walk right now. Tackling Blake took a lot out of me."

"Don't worry, Ruby, I can carry you back," Blake said after a short giggle. "Just as long as Weiss and Yang are fine with carrying all the stuff from the picnic."

Two quick agreements later and team RWBY were on their way back to Beacon with Ruby on Blake's back, Weiss carrying the basket from the picnic, and Yang carrying the blanket that they had sat on.

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys how's it going? So I was supposed to send this to my beta reader/ editor Saturday night… but power outages suck so… I couldn't. Real quick shoutout to said Beta reader/ editor imoshen88 who's totally awesome and has honestly helped this story out a lot! Thank you Imo (hope this doesn't embarrass you). Nyway thanks for reading everyone and please leave a review!**

 **Beta notes: Well…. Hi! As Shaded said, I'm currently helping him out with this story, and have been since chapter 5. Outside of being absolutely embarrassed at Shaded calling me out like this, I'm really enjoying the story so far. (As well as working on it.) I hope this goes for you readers as well. Please do leave some reviews, as I know they mean a lot to Shaded. –Imoshen88**


	10. The First Thorn

The following Monday Ruby woke up in pain. Or she would have if she'd been able to fall asleep that night. She had spent the entire night in a state of constant pain, trying her best to rest, but failing to do so. It wasn't unexpected. It had been awhile since her last spell of severe pain, and it was only a matter of time until she had one again. She was however really upset that it had to hit now of all times. She had just made a new friend the other day and was planning on hanging out with them today, and her illness seemed to be intent on getting in the way. She wouldn't let it of course. As much as resting in her bed felt as though her body was on fire, and any movement she made would only make it worse, she couldn't let it get in the way. If she did, her team would baby her until she got better. She wouldn't mind as much in this situation if they tried, however the time will come that she will need to rely on them, and she'd like to push that time back as far as possible. That and she'd learned a trick to help lessen the pain. It'd drain her aura, but it'd help her get around.

It was early morning. Early enough that none of her teammates were awake yet, but they would be soon, and Ruby knew that she wouldn't be able to fool any of them into thinking she was still asleep. So instead she jumped down from her bunk, almost falling as her legs protested her landing in agony, quietly grabbed a change of clean clothes, and went to take a shower. After she finished her shower and got dressed, she walked back into her dorm to see a pair of amber eyes staring right at her. A little surprised by the attention from her teammate, who she had assumed was still asleep, Ruby looked around and saw that Blake wasn't the only one awake, Weiss and Yang were as well.

"Umm, what's up guys?" Ruby asked softly, pain evident in her voice despite her efforts to hide it.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked in response. Upon receiving a questioning look from the shorter girl, Blake pointed to her faunus ears. "You didn't sleep, at all, last night."

"And there was some obvious pain in your voice just now," Weiss added with concern laced into her voice. "I know you don't want to be babied Ruby, but I want to know when you're having problems. That way I can look out for you and, if necessary, help you out."

Ruby looked down at her feet. She had been intending to try and hide this from her team. Weiss was right though, Ruby might not want them to worry about her, but they had a right to know. It was with a sad sigh that she looked at her partner and answered the question that Blake had asked her.

"I'm in the middle of a pain spell," she said, her voice still quiet. "It hurts, to breathe, let alone move. I can still make it through today though and hang out with Velvet. Please trust me on that one."

Weiss walked forward and cautiously put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. She would have pulled her hand away when Ruby winced, if it weren't for the fact that the younger girl had placed a hand on top of her own. "Ruby," the heiress began. "Thank you. I know you don't like telling us that you're having a hard time, but know that it really helps to know that you trust us with this."

Ruby responded with a pained smile as she looked at her partner. "I know Weiss. I'm sorry for trying to hide it from you guys. Also, I may be in a lot of pain, but don't worry about it too much, touching me doesn't increase the pain, just makes me focus on it a little more."

Ruby smiled slightly as she saw her teammates nod in acceptance of her words, and moved to leave the room. Her smile faltered as she once again had to fight her way through the pain that flared every time she tried to move. The burning agony that used to keep her curled up in a ball when she was younger, now only threatened to make her fall stumble and fall if she wasn't careful. The thought made her appreciate how far she'd come. If anything the pain got worse the older she was. However her tolerance for pain was at levels that most people would consider absurd, so she was able to power through anyway. She idly wondered how far she would have gotten if she wasn't sickly, or if she'd have had the determination to even get this far otherwise. Either way now wasn't the time to bother with those thoughts. Now was the time for breakfast.

* * *

The majority of the day passed by uneventfully as team RWBY went throughout their classes. The only real difference between this day and any other being the amount of pain that Ruby was in, and the questions about her well-being that said pain prompted from those around her. Ruby was doing her absolute best to hide her pain, and she was doing really well whenever nothing was happening. However she'd wince every time she walked, and the pain would make her go unhealthily pale whenever she moved. As a result, everyone knew that something was wrong with the young huntress in training, and most everyone was worried for her. As much as many of the people in her classes may not have known her all that well. Seeing someone obviously unwell, wasn't something they were used to.

It wasn't until team RWBY was on their way to Professor Goodwitch's combat class that something unexpected happened. The unforeseen event took the form of Cardin walking up to the team and eyeing Ruby with an air of disdain, though the observant would note a hint of worry in his eyes.

"How's the sickly one today?" the brown man said in an attempt to mess with the team.

The attempt was successful as all three of Ruby's teammates moved to put themselves between the bully and their team leader only for him to raise his hands and take a step back.

"What do you want, Cardin?" Yang asked harshly, her eyes flashing red as she took another step forward.

"Oh, just to challenge the little cheat to a re-match," he answered confidently. "Of course not today. She needs to be in full health in order to cheat after all."

Being called a cheat hurt Ruby. It wasn't that she honestly cared about Cardin's opinion. She actually couldn't care less about that. However she has spent her entire life training to be the best she could be, and now this pathetic excuse for a huntsman in training was going to stand here and tell her that she cheated in a fight. The emotional pain from his remark was quickly replaced by anger and she felt a need to put the bully in his place. She knew she couldn't do it today, she was in far too much pain for that, but she didn't need to be in full health to beat him in a fight. So she gave herself a timeline.

"Two days," she said as loud as she could manage. "I'll be okay enough to beat you in two days."

The brown haired boy laughed when he heard the challenge. "I'll hold you to that, cheater. If you back down because of your illness, then it'll just confirm that you can't beat me." With that said he walked away from team RWBY and left them all staring at their leader in confusion.

* * *

"Are you sure you still want to hang out today Ruby?" Velvet asked as she slowly followed the red-caped girl.

"I'm fine, Velvet," Ruby responded wearily. "I'm a little tired, and in a little pain, but don't worry I can still hang out."

Velvet tilted her head thoughtfully, her brown eyes staring at ruby in concern, until she had an idea and instantly perked up. "How about we hang out in my dorm room. My team will be there of course, but it'll be easier on you and we have some fun games we can play."

Ruby sighed slightly in defeat. "Okay Velvet, have it your way. We'll hang out in your dorm."

The brunette smiled in response as she turned to lead the way, her faunus ears bouncing slightly as she walked. She paced herself to make sure that the younger girl could keep up despite being in pain. She felt bad that she was messing with Ruby's plans for the day, but if the girl refused to rest then Velvet would take it into her hands to ensure that the silver eyed girl would rest as much as possible. The walk to the dorm only took ten minutes despite the slower pace, and when they arrived, Velvet simply walked in and stated, "Hey everyone, I brought a friend. Who's up for board games?"

A small chorus of agreement was heard as Ruby walked into the room behind Velvet, and found herself the immediate center of attention as the members of team CFVY all realized who she was. A girl with short brown hair, a small portion of which she allowed to grow out along the right side of her face, reacted first. Getting up she offered Ruby a seat in her chair while simultaneously introducing herself as Coco Adel, leader of team CFVY.

"Nice to meet you, Coco," Ruby responded while taking a seat. She then took a moment to actually look at her, and came to the conclusion that Coco's fashion sense was a little different. Still fashionable, just different. "Why do you wear sunglasses while inside?"

"Oh these?" Coco asked while removing her sunglasses, revealing her dark brown eyes, and holding them out in front of her. "I have sensitive eyes. So I wear them to prevent me from getting headaches in brighter areas. I tend to leave them on most of the time."

After that the two remaining members of team CFVY introduced themselves to Ruby. Fox being a dark skinned man with red hair, and pure white eyes, and Yatsuhashi being a giant of a man with really short black hair and a kind smile. Ruby couldn't tell if Fox was blind or not. His eyes seemed to hint that he was, but he knew his way around incredibly well and he always looked her way when she was talking. The action making Ruby feel as though he was actually looking at her.

The group then began to play board games together. Ruby learned a lot about the older team and learned to respect each of them greatly. Team CFVY in return learned to respect the small team leader as well. As they watched her fight through the pain just to continue spending time with them that respect grew, and by the end of the night each of them considered the small girl their friend.

It wasn't until it was time for Ruby to leave that she realized exactly how much she had pushed herself that day. When she went to stand up her entire body screamed at her in protest, demanding that she lay down and go to bed, and causing her to gag in pain. The pained gag, as well as her sudden paleness, concerned her new friends and Velvet rushed to her side to ask, "Ruby? What's wrong?"

"I… I'm in too much pain to move," the silver-eyed girl asked in between pained breaths. "Can you help me get back to my room?"

"Of course," Velvet responded, already moving to pick up the smaller girl. She then carried Ruby out of the room, with Coco following behind, and brought Ruby to her own dorm. When it opened, Ruby explained what had happened and asked to be placed on her bed. Her friend complied to her request and she quickly fell asleep, despite the pain she was in.

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys how's it going? So… this chapter gave me problems, hence why it's kinda shorter than I'd like it to be. However… I don't like writing Ruby being in pain. Two main reasons for that. I've never been in the amount of pain that she's in right now, the closest I've been gotten is the one time I crashed into a cactus once when riding my bike. The second reason is, I find myself at a loss for word to properly describe the pain she's feeling. So… I had problems and I'm fairly certain I've annoyed Imo with this. For the past three or for days I've been telling her "It's almost done" , "I'm working on it" , and "I'm having problems." I do thank her for her endless patience though. It's awesome. Nyway thanks for reading and please leave a review! Have a good one.**

 **Beta Notes: Soo, another chapter down. Like Shaded I am rather sorry how long this took but can definitely understand why it was a struggle. Seeing Ruby in pain is never something I enjoy. I will nonetheless keep pressuring Shaded for more chapters to come soon. Please leave a review with your thoughts, and for each new review I see, I will poke Shaded and remind him that we need more 'Wilting Rose'**


	11. Consequences

Two days had passed and it was the day of Ruby's second duel with Cardin. She was doing a lot better, and in fact her team had decided to go on ahead and leave her with Velvet on the way to Professor Goodwitch's sparring class. Though that could have been because they were exasperated by the fact that Ruby refused to postpone the duel until she was perfectly healthy. Even Cardin had told her she could postpone it, but she had refused. As a result, Velvet watched her new friend with worry evident in her eyes as they walked down the hallway.

"Ruby," the rabbit faunus began quietly. "I'm not going to tell you to postpone, as that obviously isn't going to work, but please don't push yourself."

"I can't hold back though," Ruby responded thoughtfully. "Cardin may not be the strongest in the class, but he's no pushover. If I don't push myself I'll lose."

"Then lose!" The words left Velvets mouth before she even realized it, the high pitched note she reached earning a shocked look from Ruby. The younger girl looked at Velvet to see a face full of worry and concern, staring at her in mild anger "If you push yourself now you might make yourself worse again. I'd rather you lose and recover, than win and end up hurting yourself more."

The silver-eyed girl looked at her brunette friend for a couple of seconds before looking at the ground. "I can't lose Velvet," she responded quietly. "I have to prove myself."

The shorter girl jumped a little as Velvet wrapped her arms around her. "You've already proven yourself to everyone that matters, Ruby," she said sadly. "Don't make the mistake of trying to impress those that don't."

"Well… I'm making that mistake now, but if I'm ever going to make it in the future I'm going to rely on you to let me know, okay?" Ruby responded, while also wrapping her arms around the taller girl.

"Only if you promise me that you'll listen."

"I promise."

With that the two of them broke the hug and continued on the way to Professor Goodwitch's class. Ruby was smiling as she thought about how much her friends cared about her. She was aware of the risks of dueling in her current state, and she hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with the consequences. She really didn't want to give her friends any more reason to worry about her. Even if the odds were stacked against her. The best way for her to avoid any debilitating consequences was to end the fight as fast as possible. So that was her plan.

The class started and Professor Goodwitch asked for volunteers for the first fight of the day. Ruby looked over at Cardin to see that he wasn't raising his hand as she had expected him to, so she took matters into her own hands. "I'd like to duel with Cardin if that's okay," she called out loudly while standing up. The professor looked at her with concern before nodding hesitantly in acceptance. Ruby couldn't bear to look behind her as she walked towards the arena. She knew that all of her friends were looking at her with concern, and she also knew that she had let all of them down. She felt that she needed to do this though. So she waited patiently for Cardin to make his way towards the arena and take his position across from her.

"Are both combatants ready?" Professor Goodwitch asked professionally, to which both Ruby and Cardin nodded. "Then you may begin."

In their first match Ruby had made a point of not using her semblance against Cardin. This time though, she spared no effort in bringing him down. No sooner had Professor Goodwitch begun the match than Ruby had launched forward at inhuman speeds, leaving rose petals trailing behind her as she went. The wind screeched as Crescent Rose sliced its way through the air towards Cardin. Despite the fact that Cardin had less than a second to respond to Ruby's sudden full speed assault, he was able to get his mace up in time to redirect Ruby's attack. He twisted his body in an attempt to bring his mace back towards Ruby, but she was already halfway across the arena again. So instead he put himself in a defensive position, waiting for Ruby's next attack.

The two combatants stared at each other wearily, as they both prepared for the next exchange of blows. Seconds drifted by as neither chose to initiate. The lull almost lasted a full minute before Ruby simply vanished, her body seeming to dissolve into rose petals as she did so. Cardin spent a whole second in shock before responding, a second that could have cost him the match. In the end though it was what he did in response that saved him from losing. He slammed his mace into the ground and ignited the large burn dust crystal he had stored within, causing an explosion. He hadn't been able to see her approach, but Ruby had just gotten within range of the explosion when it happened. The shockwave launching her back across the arena in a flurry of rose petals. This time however, there was no lull in combat. Ruby pressed the attack, vanishing once again she charged toward Cardin. The very air screamed in protest at how fast she was moving as she did so, but she didn't bother to listen.

Cardin didn't know where she was, let alone had time to respond before the blunt end of Crescent Rose slammed into his chest, launching him through the air. Ruby followed up with a downward strike that slammed him back into the ground and reduced his aura to the red zone.

"The winner is Miss Rose," Glynda called out.

Ruby smiled lightly to herself as she stored Crescent Rose on her back and started walking back towards her seat. Halfway there she realized that she wasn't going to walk away from the fight without consequence. Every step became more exhausting and painful than the last. She mentally screamed in frustration as the goal of getting to her friends was becoming more and more difficult to accomplish, until eventually, she collapsed right next to her seat. 'Sorry guys… I didn't mean to push myself past my limits,' she thought to herself as she felt someone catch her in their arms.

* * *

Team RWBY, CFVY, and JNPR were all waiting in the infirmary for news from the doctor. They had taken Ruby to the infirmary after she collapsed and were doing their best to wait patiently for the doctor to tell them what had happened. Some more successfully than others. Yang, being the least successful, was pacing around the waiting area angrily. Weiss was rapidly tapping her fingers on her legs in frustration and Jaune was in a corner seemingly having a silent conversation with Ren, though it was more likely that the two were simply dealing with nerves with similar, non-verbal, gestures. Velvet was actually chewing on a piece of plastic, though where she got it from no one could guess, and the others were all alternating between muted conversations and waiting in nervous silence.

When the door opened and the doctor walked out, she was met by an entire room of people staring at her. A less experienced doctor might have frozen or faltered, but she wasn't a new doctor. Doctor Ayisha was a veteran, and she'd dealt with situations like this before. So it was with a small sigh that she looked at the friends of her patient and smiled at the concern written on their faces. This would be good news for them.

"Miss Rose is going to be perfectly fine," she began calmly, watching with joy as relief spread across the students' faces. "She is suffering from pushing herself too far while her body was sick and trying to recover. I have already submitted the paperwork to have her excused from classes for four days. Not including the weekend, that's a total of six days of rest. From what I understand of her condition she won't be able to move very much for two to three days, however I will require her to take all six days of rest. I expect you all to keep her in her dorm at all times during those days of rest, and if I see her walking around the halls of Beacon, not only will I lock her in the infirmary, but you will find that you'll regret it as well."

"Yes ma'am," came the universal reply from everyone in the room.

"Good," Doctor Ayisha said professionally. "Now go take her to her room. One of you will have to carry her."

"I'll do it," Yang said as she walked into the room where Ruby was. She came out mere seconds later holding her little sister in her arms and walked straight out of the room.

The rest of the students followed quietly after the blond. They walked down the hallway in silence as they all processed the information that they had just been given by the doctor. A mixture of joy and sadness filled their hearts as their friend was confirmed to be alright, but also that she had pushed herself despite their pleas for her to pace herself. Eventually Coco, Fox, and Yatsuhashi decided to branch off and go to their own dorm, room while Velvet stayed with the group, and when they got to the dorm room team JNPR all decided to go to their own room. Velvet however stood at the door to team RWBY's room as the group entered. Silently asking for, and receiving, permission to enter the room. She entered as Yang was gently placing Ruby in the younger sibling's bed, showing a level of tenderness that most people wouldn't think could come from the blonde brawler. Yang then turned and faced the remaining people in the room. Opening her mouth to ask a question before closing it once again without saying anything.

"So," Velvet began, attempting to ask the question they were all asking themselves. "How do we keep Ruby in her room for six days straight? Even when she was at her worst she refused to just rest in her room."

She was met with the shaking heads of the others. No one really knowing an answer to the question that wouldn't hurt the trust the young team leader had in them. The group fell into silence as they all thought of what they could do. The options were very limited, as they didn't want Ruby to feel as if she was forced to stay in her room, despite the fact that she was. Minutes passed by until Weiss eventually spoke up.

"We can take turns watching her," the white-haired heiress said quietly. "She usually exerts herself simply so she can spend time with her friends. So if one of us, her friends, was always by her side, it would make it easier for her to stay put."

"It'd require us to miss classes," came the response from Blake, as the raven haired faunus looked at Weiss from her position on her bed.

"That's why we'd alternate," was the simple response

"And we could take notes for the person missing," Yang said, earning a nod from both Yang and Weiss.

"Could I be put on this rotation?" Velvet asked cautiously. "I know you're her team and all, but she's my friend, albeit a new one, and I want to do my best to make sure she gets better as well."

Velvet swallowed nervously as she was currently the focus of three very different pairs of eyes, and she felt like each of them were attempting to bore into her soul. The immense pressure she felt coming from Ruby's teammates however left almost as suddenly as it appeared as the three people blinked.

"I see no problem with that, Velvet," Weiss responded. "If anything it makes it a little easier for us. One person will watch her until lunch and another will watch her from lunch until classes are over. After that we'll spend as much time as we can in the room to keep her company and copy notes. Velvet you and your team will have an open invitation while this is happening."

Velvet nodded happily in response. "Thank you guys! I'll go let my team know," she said as she was about to run out of the room. At the last second she turned around and said, "I can watch her before lunch tomorrow. I have no tests until after lunch." With that said she rushed out of the room and closed the door softly behind her.

"So tomorrow morning is taken care of," Weiss said calmly. "We'll have to send Velvet a message and ask what other times she can watch Ruby, but for now let's assume that's the only time she can and work from there."

"Right," Blake and Yang said in unison.

With that the three members of team RWBY set up a schedule to help take care of their team leader until she got better. It was a simple plan, one that probably wouldn't have worked for most people, but Ruby responded best to simple plans though. She could make convoluted plans in combat situations, but at heart she was a simple person who loved being with her friends. That was why this plan had the best chance of success. After the schedule was made, with Velvet volunteering for another morning watch, the team left to finish their homework while their leader slept. They wanted to be able to spend time with her when she woke.

 **A/N**

 **Hey Guys… sorry this took so long. I got mildly distracted from Thursday to Sunday. This would have been done on Saturday if not for that. Hope you enjoy the chapter though. Please leave a review and let me know how you like the story.**

 **B/N**

 **So another chapter down, and while I know Shaded has apologized for taking a while to get this out, I can tell you all it wasn't for lack of trying. I personally am really excited for what is to come, and I hope that goes for all the rest of you as well. Please do leave a review and let us know.**


	12. Bedside Rose Pt1

Ruby's return to consciousness was a slow process. She could tell that she was waking up, but she couldn't really move, or even open her eyes. At first she was terrified that maybe she had actually died. However as time passed, and she gradually became more and more aware of the sounds of her team moving about as quietly as they could manage, she realized that she was in her dorm room. A precious few minutes passed before the silver-eyed girl was finally able to force her eyes to open. The sight she opened her eyes to was, unsurprisingly, the ceiling.

At the sound of someone approaching she forced herself to look over. Upon doing so her vision was filled with the golden blonde hair of her sister as she felt arms wrap around her. She smiled at the warmth of being close to another person before forcing her arms to wrap Yang in a hug. An action that took a surprising amount of effort. It was then that she realized that her sister was shaking slightly, something that worried her.

"Yang?" Ruby asked in concern. Her voice only coming out as a small whisper "Are you okay?"

In response, Yang released Ruby from the hug and moved back a little bit, irritation and concern shown on her face. "No. I'm not okay. My sister pushed herself so far that she randomly collapsed and fell unconscious. What would I have done if the doctor said you weren't going to wake up?"

The thought struck Ruby like a slap to the face. What if she hadn't woken up? She'd never pushed herself that far before and she'd had no idea how her body would react. She didn't regret it. In fact the only thing she regretted was ignoring the pleas of her friends and fighting Cardin. She just hadn't thought about how much worry she was causing her friends, and now she felt horrible for making them worry so much.

"I'm sorry, Yang," Ruby said, her voice still barely above a whisper. "I… didn't mean to worry you."

"Really?" Yang asked back a bit forcefully. "Because with the way you ignored all of our pleas to take it easy, it felt like you didn't care whether we worried or not."

Ruby closed her eyes, the pain she felt from those words evident on her face, and waited for a few moments. The words, "I'm sorry," found their way out of her mouth without her realizing it. She wanted to explain what was going through her mind and why she felt a need to push herself. Looking back though, she couldn't find a reason to justify it. So she waited for her team to leave her and go to class. To her surprise she felt herself being hugged again, but this time when she opened her eyes, she saw white hair. "Weiss?"

"Don't make such a pitiful face, you dolt," the white haired heiress responded with a kind voice and a disapproving glare. "You'll break people's hearts, and while I may agree with your sister, I want you to know that I'm still your friend. However, I expect you to remember this and never push yourself so far again. Deal?"

The smile that found its way across the younger girl's face was all the answer Weiss needed. Still she decided to wait and hear Ruby's response. She only had to wait a moment before the word, "Deal," was spoken softly by her team leader. She smiled before stepping down from her own bed to give Ruby some space and watched as Ruby turned herself over to look her teammates.

"So," she began hesitantly, her voice gaining a little volume. "What exactly happened?"

"You collapsed," Blake answered immediately, earning a blank stare from the team leader. "Weiss caught you, Yang carried you to the infirmary, and we all waited for the doctor to tell us what was wrong."

"Okay," Ruby responded thoughtfully. "What did the doctor say?"

This time Yang was the one to respond. "You overexerted yourself Rubes. The doctor said that you probably won't have the energy to move around for a couple of days, and you're not allowed to leave this room for at least six days."

"Six days...?" She repeated dejectedly

"Yes, Ruby," Weiss answered, taking note of the dismay evident in Ruby's voice. "We did, however, set up a schedule so that one of us would be with you at all times."

"Really?" Ruby asked, happiness evident in her voice. She started to smile before frowning thoughtfully. "But you'll miss classes."

Yang smiled in response. "Rubes, I think we're all in agreement when I say that you're more important than classes." Weiss and Blake both nodded in agreement with small smiles.

At that moment they all heard a series of small knocks on the door. Ruby looked at the door in confusion as Weiss walked over to open it, revealing Velvet. The rabbit faunus walked into the room with a small smile and a basket of food. Placing the basket of food down by the door, Velvet walked over to the bunk beds that belonged to Ruby and Weiss, stepped on Weiss' bed, and gave Ruby a short hug before smacking her lightly on the cheek.

"I specifically remember warning you against pushing yourself," the brown eyed girl said sadly. "Yet here you are, bedridden, all because you pushed yourself."

"I know, Velvet," Ruby responded, her voice dimmed by her own sadness. "I should have listened to you."

"Good," was the response that came from the brown-eyed faunus. "As long as you realize your mistake, then you shouldn't make it again."

"By the way, why are you here Velvet?" The bedridden girl asked with mild confusion.

"Well Rubes, you know how we set up a schedule so that one of us will always be with you," Yang responded, eliciting a nod from Ruby. "Well, Velvet volunteered to be put onto that schedule. She's going to be here 'till afternoon classes start and then it's Weiss' turn, and after classes all of us will be here."

"Oh," Ruby said softly. "Thank you guys… for being willing to do this for me."

"No problem, Ruby," Weiss responded with a sincere smile. "However we do have to get going to class… so we'll be going now. See you later." After that reminder, both Blake and Yang got up and left after telling Ruby to do her best to relax.

"So, Velvet," the silver-eyed girl began as her team left the room. A mischievous glint appearing in her eyes.

"Yes, Ruby?" Velvet responded without suspicion.

"I've been meaning to ask. Are there any boys that have caught your interest?"

The question caused Velvet to freeze and stare at Ruby. "Why do you want to know?"

The red-tipped brunette seemed to think for a few moments before answering. "Mostly curiosity," she said simply. "My friends from signal keep asking me about cute boys… but I haven't really found any, and Weiss and Blake have too much to worry about apparently. I was kinda hoping I could use your words when writing responses."

Velvet giggles softly at Ruby's answer. "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you Ruby, but I haven't found any boys that I'm interested in in that way. Despite what most people think Yatsuhashi is more like a brother to me. He's always there when I need him, and sometimes when I don't, but we're not interested in each other in that way. He actually has a crush on someone else entirely."

"Do none of my friends have crushes?" Ruby asked in exasperation, her voice still closer to a whisper than her normal volume.

"Apparently not, Ruby," Velvet answered with a small giggle. "I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful right now."

Ruby sighed slightly in defeat. "It's okay Velvet. It's not your fault. I'll just have to warn my friends back at Signal that there aren't any cute boys at Beacon."

Velvet tilted her head to the side as she sat on the chair at Weiss' desk. "Some might say that Jaune is cute."

"Pffft, he's useless. Completely counteracts any charm he might have."

"Wow. Harsh."

"I'm sorry," Ruby responded quietly. "But if you're going to be coming to Beacon… make sure that you know what you're doing before you get here. As it is he'd be better off trying to become a teacher for tactics or something like that. I mean he's a nice guy and all, good friend too, but he's useless. If it weren't for Pyrrha teaching him… he'd stay useless as well."

"I didn't realize that you were so judgmental there, Ruby," Velvet said with a slight giggle. "I might have to reevaluate our friendship. Wouldn't want to be judged like that myself."

"I wouldn't judge you like that!" Ruby said with a small amount of panic. "You're not useless, so you're fine. I just wish Jaune had actually … you know… prepared to come to Beacon."

Velvet shook her head in response. "It's not that I disagree with you, Ruby, but think about it this way. If his parents didn't want him to come to Beacon then he would have had a really hard time preparing. Honestly it's a miracle that he's as prepared as he is."

The silver-eyed girl gave Velvet a confused stare. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well," the rabbit faunus began. "For one he actually has a weapon. Second he's fit enough to actually train with Pyrrha, and thirdly he's actually strong. In a contest of raw strength there aren't many here that can actually beat him. Cardin, Yatsuhashi, Yang, and Coco are the only ones that I can think of off the top of my head." She paused for a second. "And here I thought you were a nice girl who'd do anything for her friends."

"Alright, he's not completely useless. Just partially useless," Ruby responded tiredly. "I'd still do anything for him. As I said he's a great friend. I guess… I've just let some frustration about his lack of skills build up."

"It's okay Ruby," Velvet said with a small smile. "It's best to let people know about those kinda things. Like if I'm doing something that you don't like let me know. That way it doesn't build up and end with you calling me useless."

"Alright, Velvet, I'll remember that. Also can you come over here real quick?"

Instead of responding, the rabbit faunus got up and walked over to Ruby and Weiss' bunk beds. When she got there she stepped onto Weiss' bed and lifted herself up to be at Ruby's level. She then gave Ruby a questioning stare which prompted a nervous laugh from the younger girl.

"So," the silver-eyed girl began with an air of innocence. "This is going to be a little weird, but in my pillowcase is a plastic bag. It takes a lot of effort for me to move right now so I was wondering if you could get it."

"Sure," the brunette responded after a moment of thought. She then looked and realized that the opening to the pillowcase was on the other side of Ruby. Hesitantly, due to the fact that Ruby's bed was hanging from the ceiling, Velvet placed her weight on Ruby's bed and moved over to be able to reach into the pillow case. She found herself painfully aware of her proximity to the younger girl, and judging by the mischievous glint in Ruby's silver eyes she was aware as well. It took Velvet a few moments to find the plastic bag in Ruby's pillow. A few moments where she was increasingly aware of their closeness and position, and she felt like somehow the younger girl had planned this. When she finally pulled the plastic bag out and saw that it had cookies in it she gave Ruby a disbelieving stare.

"I want you to have them," the smaller girl said with a smile.

"You're giving me … cookies?" The rabbit faunus asked, confusion obvious in her voice.

"Yup!" Ruby said joyfully with a weak smile. "I like to give cookies to my friends to show my appreciation for them. Just ask Weiss and Blake. I've given them cookies several times."

Velvet looked between Ruby and the bag of cookies several times before letting a smile appear on her face. "This is how you show appreciation for your friends?" She asked as she reached into the plastic bag and pulled out a cookie. Her smile grew slightly when she saw Ruby nod hesitantly. "Then I guess I'll show my appreciation for you in the same way," she said as she placed the cookie on the bedridden girls mouth. "I'd give you the whole bag but that'd kinda negate the point of you giving me the cookies in the first place. So you'll have to settle for one."

The smile that spread across Ruby's face, though partially hidden by the cookie, was all the response Velvet needed to know she'd done a good thing. She giggled to herself as the sickly girl ate the cookie as energetically as she could manage. The two then spent the rest of the morning talking to each other about random things until eventually a white-haired young woman walked in wearing a light blue dress with white trim. It was at that moment that Velvet realized how much time had passed and looked down to realize that she'd eaten all of the cookies Ruby had given her.

"Hello," Weiss said as she looked around the room. "Did you have a nice morning?"

"Yup!" Was the quiet yet happy response that came from the bedridden team leader.

"Yes, we did," Velvet said with a small smile as she stood up. "Though if you're here I guess it's time for me to go to class. Have a good one you two."

"You as well, Velvet," Weiss responded kindly. "Thank you for being willing to help."

Velvet turned to look at Weiss before closing the door. "Ruby's a friend. This isn't even really a sacrifice because I get to spend time with her as a result." With that Velvet closed the door and left Weiss and Ruby alone together.

Weiss walked over to her bed and sat on it. This put her in a position where neither she nor Ruby could see the other, but knowing the other was close was enough for them. The two sat in silence, something that Weiss thoroughly enjoyed, for several minutes before Ruby felt the need to speak to her friend and teammate.

"How were classes, Weiss?" The younger girl said, just loud enough for Weiss to hear clearly.

The white haired heiress on the bunk beneath her hummed softly before responding, "Oh you know. Professor Oobleck talking faster than most people can understand and Professor Port hiding all of the useful information in exaggerated stories about his own accomplishments. I took notes so when you're feeling better we can go over them together."

"Sounds like a normal day," Ruby responded thoughtfully. "Nothing interesting happened at all?"

"Some of the teams from Shade Academy in Vacuo got here today. I didn't really get a chance to meet them though."

"Because you had to come watch me?" Ruby had whispered the words to herself sadly, any semblance of a smile disappearing from her face as she realized what a burden she had forced herself to become. She was almost certain Weiss didn't hear her so she was shocked when her partner actually responded.

"I don't have to watch you, Ruby," Weiss said sternly, giving a mild glare to the bottom of Ruby's bed. "I'm doing this because I'd rather be with you than be learning about the teams from Shade."

A small smile started spreading across Ruby's face as she heard Weiss' response. "Thanks Weiss," the bedridden girl said softly. "It means a lot that you care that much." After she finished she heard a noise from underneath her and turned her head to look towards the center of the room. A couple of seconds later she saw a face with white hair and piercing icy blue eyes rise over the side of her bed.

"Ruby," Weiss said sternly. Though her eyes were full of care and concern. "You're my friend. You're going to have to expect me to care about you."

"I know, Weiss," Ruby said with a smile while poking Weiss on the forehead. "It's just weird. I can't exactly wrap my head around the idea that you guys know about my illness and still decide to care about me."

"Well you better get used to it soon," the white-haired girl responded with a small huff. "Or I might start getting annoyed at the fact that you don't expect me to care."  
Ruby's smile turned into a small pout as she thought about her response. "I … expect you to care. It's just… up until now the only people who've known about my problems were my family, and not all of them took it really well."

Weiss tilted her head as she looked at Ruby and reached to grab Ruby's hand. "If you ever want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

Ruby gave a forced smile and squeezed Weiss' hand softly. "When my mom died… my dad didn't take it well. He broke down and got lost in being a huntsman for a couple of years and my Uncle Qrow had to raise me and Yang. When he was finally making progress to being his old self, or at least a good father," Ruby paused there as tears started to form in her eyes. "We got the news that I had this illness, and… he broke again. Ever since he's kinda treated me like I've already died and he's just waiting for me to stop moving. So I'm scared of letting people know. I don't want people to treat me like I'm already dead."

At that point Ruby started crying. Weiss was shocked by the story she had just heard, and she made a vow in her heart that she'd have words with Ruby's father, should she ever meet him. She then pulled herself up onto Ruby's bed, sat down next to her, pulled Ruby into a sitting position on her lap, and hugged the smaller girl tightly. Weiss honestly wasn't sure what she could do to comfort the young team leader so she waited for Ruby to stop crying and break the hug herself.

It took a little over an hour for Ruby to regain control over her rampant emotions. When she did she looked up at Weiss and gave her teammate a small smile. "Thanks, Weiss. I really needed that."

"No problem, Ruby," Weiss responded with warmth in her eyes. "I told you I'd be here for you and I will be here for you."

"Thanks again," Ruby said while giving Weiss a final squeeze before releasing the hug and sliding off of Weiss' lap. "Can you do something for me right now?"  
Weiss nodded while giving a kind smile. "Of course, Ruby."

"Can you go over to my dresser and grab something?"

"Sure," the white-haired heiress responded while hopping down from Ruby's bed and landing lightly on her feet. She then walked over to the wall that had Ruby's dresser and called out, "what do you want me to grab?"

"In the top right drawer, in the very back there should be a plastic bag."

"Okay," Weiss called back while opening the specified drawer. "Ruby… This is your bra drawer."

"Perfect hiding spot, right? No one would look in there unless I ask them to," came the most energetic reply Weiss had heard yet today, though Ruby's voice was still very soft.

"If you say so," Weiss said as she reached for the back of the drawer, doing her best to not mess with anything. It only took her a couple of seconds to find the plastic bag and pull it out. Revealing a bag of cookies. She then walked back over to Ruby and put the plastic bag on the team leader's bed. "Here you go."

"They're for you, Weiss," Ruby said with a large smile.

Weiss looked at the bag of cookies before looking back at Ruby. "How about I take one cookie and you can have the rest? You're probably a little hungry and you can munch on those while I get some food for you. Plus I need to show my appreciation for your friendship sometimes as well… Though asking a friend to look through your bras is a little weird."

A bright smile found its way onto Ruby's face as Weiss finished her statement. "Yeah, but we're best friends. That's way different than normal friends."

"Really?" Weiss asked skeptically.

"Yup! You can cuddle with best friends. Kinda. Boys don't seem to be okay with cuddling unless you're actually in a 'relationship.'"

"That's… good to know?" Weiss asked more than stated. She then walked over to the small fridge she had bought for her team a week prior, pulled out a couple of readymade meals, and used her semblance and some burn dust to warm them up. As she was doing this she thought about what Ruby said and smiled lightly to herself.

"Ruby," she began as she was walking over to the bedridden girl's bed. "Here's your food." She then placed one of the two meals she had warmed up on Ruby's bed with a fork to eat it with.

"Thanks, Weiss," Ruby said softly as she grabbed the warm meal. "I've said it a lot but I am really grateful for a lot of things that you've done."

Weiss then pulled herself up onto Ruby's bed and once again sat down next to her friend and team leader. The two ate together in silence for several minutes until Ruby decided to lean against Weiss. The blue-eyed girl glanced at her best friend in silence before deciding that she was fine with cuddling with Ruby. The two passed the rest of the afternoon like that until classes were over. At which point in time they spent the rest of the day with their friends and they eventually all ended up having a massive slumber party on the floor.

 **A/N**  
 **Thanks for reading everyone. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Sorry it took so long though. I was getting part of the way through when one of my friends told me that I wasn't putting enough emotion in so I erased it all and started over. I hope I was able to put an acceptable amount of emotion in this time. Please leave a review.**


	13. Bedside Rose Pt2

Ruby woke up the following morning with a small feeling of dread in her stomach. She had to spend the entirety of this day in her dorm as well. If she was being honest with herself she probably would have done so anyway as she was still really weak, but the fact that she had to stay in the dorm made it a lot worse. She knew she was going to have a friend with her at all times, which was amazing, but she'll eventually need something else to distract her as well. It was with those thoughts that she forced herself into a sitting position and looked around her team's room. She had woken up late, so her team was supposed to be in class, but as they promised there would always be someone here with her. Right now that someone was Yang.

Yang looked up at Ruby from where she was doing push-ups on the floor. "Oh heya, Rubes," she called out happily without stopping her exercises. "How're you feeling?"

Ruby shrugged in response. "You can probably guess it fairly accurately," she said noncommittally. Ruby wasn't positive that Yang would understand how she felt, but either way Yang knew she wasn't doing the best and wouldn't push it.

Yang stopped her exercising and walked towards Ruby's bed. "Yeah… stupid question. Sorry about that." The blonde said apologetically, while scratching the back of her head.

"It's not your fault Yang," the younger sister responded while moving to get off her bed. Which prompted her older sister to move over and catch her as she pushed herself off the edge of her bed. After Yang put her down on the floor Ruby looked up at her older sister with a smile. "Thanks for the catch."

"So.. what do you want to do, Rubes?"

Ruby took a second to ponder the question, before looking at her sister. "Real quick question. Do you have any games I could play while locked in this room? Not that I don't love spending time with you guys but… without something to focus on other than talking to you guys I'm going to get all kinds of bored."

Yang looked behind her at her own desk. "I only brought one game with me. The plan was to grab more when we went home for the break, if I was comfortable playing games more often. If you want to play it you can. It's Grimmlands 2."

"You never let me play that game," the shorter sister responded while giving Yang a sideways glance. "Why let me play it now?"

"Well… it was kinda Qrow's rule that I shouldn't let you play really violent games. He didn't want them to influence you in any way, but now that you're a huntress… I guess they can't make you take up a more violent profession, can they?"

Ruby gave Yang a disbelieving stare. Her silver eyes boring into the older sister's lilac eyes. "Uncle Qrow would make a rule like that… while he's training me to become a huntress." She finally said with a sigh. After a few moments the irony of what she said finally hit her and she started giggling.

Yang let out a short chuckle as well before walking over to her desk and taking an object out of one of the drawers. Walking back over to Ruby she handed the object to her younger sister. "I didn't bring my system to play on so you'll have to deal with using your scroll, but it's just as good either way."

Ruby grabbed the game, carefully place it onto her desk, and then turned back around and gave her sister a hug. "Thanks, Yang."

"No problem, Rubes," Yang responded while returning her sisters hug. "Actually I've been meaning to ask you a question. Or two actually."

Ruby broke the hug and took a step back while giving her sister a questioning look. "Okay. Shoot."

Yang looked down for a second before bringing her head back up to stare at her sister. "So you know how I've periodically bugged you about getting in a relationship with someone, and I guess I now know why you've always said 'no', but I wanted to make sure that I never bugged you too much about it."

Ruby gave an exasperated sigh before giving Yang a short hug and saying, "Yang you started teasing me about that when I was nine. Of course I wasn't interested in a relationship at that age. I didn't even find out I like girls until I was thirteen, but no. You never pushed it too far and for that I'm thankful."

The blonde sister breathed a sigh of relief before responding. "Well… I was kinda hoping you'd hear me out this time."

"Hear you out? You're going to try and convince me again?" Ruby asked incredulously

"Just one last time."

Ruby sighed. "Yang, I really don't-"

"Please, Ruby," Yang cut in. "Just let me try to explain myself."

The silver-eyed girl looked at her feet before giving a short nod of acceptance.

"Thank you, Rubes," the older sister said in relief. "So I was thinking maybe you should try and get into a relationship with maybe Blake or Weiss." Ruby's head shot up at that. "Before you say anything, I know neither of them have shown romantic interest in you, but I also know that they care for you a lot. I'd bet that if you asked them, they'd say that they love you and I know for a fact that both of them would be willing to try seeing you as something more if you asked them to. So ask them. You might be sick but they've already accepted that." After that statement Yang paused for a moment to gather her thoughts some more. "I'm not asking this just so you can be in a relationship. I'm asking this because a relationship with the right person can be an amazing thing and I want you to be able to be truly happy."

A long minute of silence passed before Ruby said anything. All she did for this entire minute was keep her eyes focused intently on the ground. "Yang," the shorter girl said finally, sorrow evident in her voice. "I'm really sorry that I never realized why you wanted me in a relationship… but I can't."

"Why not?" Yang asked quietly. The question was said in such a way that it was obvious that Ruby didn't need to answer if she didn't want to, but Yang would like an answer.

"Two reasons mainly," Ruby began quietly. Her voice showing more sadness than she'd like to admit. "First, I can't choose. I love both of them as well as Velvet and don't want to hurt them in any way. At the same time I don't believe in a relationship with more than one person. Ultimately getting into a relationship with anyone would end with my death hurting them that much more as well. Which brings me to the main problem."

The final sentence caught Yang's attention and the blonde found herself holding her breath while waiting for her sister to continue talking. The fear she felt invade her mind seemed to make time slow down as the seconds ticked by, before Ruby finally got the courage to finish her statement.

"Wilting Rose Syndrome… is an accurate name for this disease," Ruby said, her voice barely above a whisper. She brought her head up to look at her older sister, her silver eyes begging Yang to not overreact. "Every morning when I wake up, I feel noticeably weaker than the day before. Even now when I'm recovering, I feel it. Like my very life force is wilting away. The difference is so small that if I wasn't trained to be aware of everything that's happening to my body, I wouldn't even realize it. The problem is… that it's there… and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Yang I am on a timer… and every day I feel myself running out of time. I … don't want to get into a relationship when I'm only going to get worse. One day Yang my 'good days' are going to be the days where I only collapse once." Ruby's voice had started wavering as she started talking about her disease. Now though she couldn't continue, as she had slowly deteriorated into a crying mess. The red-tipped brunette fell to her knees as tears flowed freely down her face.

Yang felt downright terrible. Not only had she misinterpreted how Ruby felt about relationships, but she had also made her little sister cry. Guilt ate away at the blonde brawler as she found herself falling to her own knees next to her sister and pulling Ruby into a hug. The two stayed like that for a long while, as Ruby cried her heart out. Even after Ruby had stopped crying they stayed in their hug for another hour or so before an alarm went off.

"Dang it," Yang said harshly. "Sorry, Rubes, that means it's almost time for Blake to get here."

"It's okay, Yang. Thanks for taking care of me this morning," Ruby said while wiping her face despite the fact that her tears had dried off long ago.

"Yeah I made you cry… totally taking care of you," Yang responded as she got up and walked over to her desk to collect her things for class.

"I needed to tell you eventually, Yang. Might as well have been then. Also, Yang?"

"Yeah, Rubes?"

"What are your plans for the future? Other than being a huntress I mean."

Yang paused in her act of collecting things for class. It was only a couple of seconds but it was a couple of seconds she needed to think. What were her plans? Get married? Die fighting? Become a teacher at Signal or Beacon? She didn't even know. "I don't know, Rubes… I guess I never thought about it."

Ruby lips formed a small, semi-forced, smile as she looked at her older sister. "You need some solid plans, Yang. I'll haunt you if you don't go far in life. Not a good type of haunting either. I'll hide your shampoo and stuff."

Yang turned around to look at her younger sister in shock. As she did so the door to the room opened revealing Blake. The raven haired faunus walked into the room and gave a questioning glance at Yang. "Yang? Are you okay?"

Yang shook her head in response. "I'm okay. Ruby just promised to haunt me if I don't do good in life." With that the blonde finished gathering her belongings and walked out of the room.

Blake turned to look at her team leader. "You threatened to haunt her?"

Ruby did her best to give an innocent smile. Which at the time was fairly terrible. "Yup. We were talking about the future and she said she hadn't really thought of what she'd do other than being a huntress."

Blake would have laughed softly at Ruby's answer if it weren't for the fact that the younger girl looked terrible. "Ruby," the faunus said hesitantly. "Are you okay?"

Ruby sighed a short, sad sigh before looking at Blake. "Yang and I talked about something that … isn't the most pleasant of things to talk about… I'll talk to you and Weiss about it eventually."

Ruby stiffened slightly as Blake gave her a hug. "You know she didn't mean to hurt you."

It took Ruby a few moments to relax and hug Blake back. "I know, Blake. How's your day been?"

Blake broke the hug and took a step back before responding. "Classes were really boring today. Apparently very few people did well on the most recent test in Oobleck's class, so we had a full day of recap today and professor Port's story wasn't all that interesting this morning. I don't even know how Weiss took as many notes as she did."

Ruby smiled an actual genuine smile at that. "It's because she's Weiss. Anything that can teach her anything is something worth taking notes on, as far as she's concerned. Not to mention that she has an amazing attention span."

Blake smiled back at her team leader. "So did you and Yang do anything fun this morning?"

Ruby frowned and pretended to think for a few moments. "Yang gave me a game to play while recovering, but other than that we just talked. While I really enjoy talking to you guys I'm not sure if that's what you mean by 'fun.'"

Blake laughed softly. "Not necessarily no, but I think it's fun talking with you guys as well."

"Thanks, Blake," Ruby said happily as she started to walk over to her desk to sit down. "I really wish that standing and walking around would get easier soon. I can do it… but it's taxing."

"It's your body punishing you for pushing yourself, Ruby," Blake said calmly while taking a seat at her own desk. "While I'm not happy that you're going through it… you need to learn to respect your own limitations."

"I know, Blake," Ruby said with a defeated sigh. "Sometimes I feel a pressing need to prove that my illness doesn't define me though."

"Ruby," Blake began while giving Ruby a serious look. "Your illness doesn't define you. Your personality defines you, and you have a great personality."

"Thanks, Blake," Ruby responded quietly. "Oh! Before I forget. Can I borrow a book to read while I'm stuck in the dorm room?"

Blake gave Ruby a confused look before giving a short laugh and nodding. "You can read any of my books, Ruby."

"Do you have any recommendations?"

Blake walked over to her bookshelf before grabbing a couple and walking over to Ruby. "I'd start with these two. They're both the first books in their respective series."

Ruby looked down at the two books before gently placing them on her desk. "Thanks, Blake. Have you looked under your bed recently?"

Blake glanced at Ruby's face, confusion evident on her own. "No… why?"

"You should check under your bed every so often. You never know what kind of evil spawns down there."

Blake walked over to her bed, confusion still written all over her face, before getting on her knees and looking under it. At first it seemed as though there was nothing wrong with it. After a moment though Blake spotted something and went to grab it. As her fingers touched the as of yet unidentified object she realized that she was grabbing a plastic bag. When she pulled out the plastic bag she found that she was holding a bag of cookies. "Ruby," the raven haired faunus called out, as she stood up and turned to face her team leader. "Why was there a bag of cookies under my bed?"

"I wanted to give them to you! I was worried you'd never look under your bed though, so I had to direct you to them," Ruby answered with a bright, innocent smile on her face. "I feel bad 'cause I've never asked you or Weiss what your favorite types of cookies are. I hope you two enjoy chocolate chip as much as I do though."

"I love chocolate chip cookies," Blake responded warmly. "Thank you, Ruby."

"You shouldn't be thanking me for those. They're my thanks for you being an awesome friend."

"I'm still grateful."

After that the two spent the rest of their time together reading books and eating cookies in companionable silence. Ruby found that she really enjoyed reading fantasy books as they reminded her of the fairy tales of her childhood. They once again allowed her to pretend that she was the knight in shining armor, coming to save the town from imminent destruction. She wished with all of her heart that she would be able to do that.

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys how's it going? Sorry for the delay. Real life drama happened. This was supposed to be out a couple of days after chapter 12… not a little over a week. Nyway hope you enjoyed it and please leave a review!**

 **B/N**

 **This weeks beta notes has been cut short as Imo is currently still trying to recover from the revelation regarding Ruby's condition. :(**


	14. A Break from Trials

It was an interesting feeling for Ruby as she rode the bullhead back to Patch for the break between semesters. On one side, she had finished a semester at Beacon! Not only that, but she was doing good in her classes. On the other side, she'd have to deal with her dad again. That was something she wasn't looking forward to. She loved him, a lot, but he was never good at handling the fact that she was sick, and sometimes she feels as though she's already dead in his eyes. All things considered though, she was happy when the bullhead landed. She might not have the best of times with her dad, but she at least got to spend some time with him. That was more than some people could ask for. So it was with a small bounce in her step that she grabbed Yang's hand and dragged her sister off of the bullhead.

The older of the two sisters was surprised by Ruby's enthusiasm but decided to remain silent and let herself be dragged. After a quick look around the two realized that their dad wasn't there to greet them at the air docks. That wasn't all that unexpected. Patch was a small town on a small island, and everyone knew everyone. Not only that but with their training the two were both highly respected there. So the two didn't even miss a beat as they headed down the dirt path that would lead to their house, nodding every now and then in greeting to the people they were passing.

It only took them about half an hour to reach their house. A moderately sized wooden cabin with two floors and a large amount of windows. It even had a balcony on the second floor. They never could figure out if the windows were their dad's idea or one of their mom's ideas. Either way they both loved the windows and how far away they could see from the second floor. The sisters didn't enter their home right away, they never did. Instead they took a moment to simply stare at the place they'd called home their entire life and basked in the feeling of completion they got from being there. A few moments were enough though, as they both knew that their dad was aware of where they were. He always knew. Being an ex-huntsman he was an exceptionally tough person to sneak up on. Though Ruby had managed it a few times.

With a smile on each of their faces Ruby and Yang opened the door and walked into their home. The room they entered was exactly as they remembered it. Pictures of them and their parents adorned most of the walls in the room. The only wall vacant of pictures was vacant simply because of the fifty two inch holoscreen that would pop up in front of it if they ever felt like playing videogames or watching a show or something. Directly ahead they saw their dad turn the corner in the hallway and look at them.

"Welcome home," the tanned, blond man said with suppressed enthusiasm. "I've got lunch prepared if you want to eat before telling me all about your first semester at Beacon."

"Sounds good," Yang called out enthusiastically as she took off toward the dining area in the house, leaving a mildly surprised Ruby behind.

"Yang you're not supposed to run in the house!" She called out after her sister before walking at a quickened pace after the blonde sibling.

When she arrived in the dining room it was to see not just her dad and Yang, but also her uncle Qrow, sitting at the table with plates placed in front of them with mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and some biscuits. It took her a moment to find the plate that had been set for her as it was next to Qrow instead of next to Yang. Though that was probably because Qrow was where Yang usually sat. "Hi uncle Qrow!" the silver-eyed girl said happily as she sat down.

"Hey squirt. How's Beacon been?" the older man responded as he pretended to be adjusting the dark red cape on his back.

"Well… I beat up a bully. That's a good thing right?" Ruby asked with an innocent smile before asking her dad for permission to begin eating. When she received said permission she immediately started eating the mashed potatoes on her plate.

"Well from what Yang tells me it wasn't necessarily a good situation for you," the black-haired man responded.

Ruby gave her uncle a startled look before responding, "oh… she told you about that."

"She did," Qrow said with a sigh. "I swear… you're the reason my hair's going grey."

Ruby was cut off from responding by Taiyang beginning a conversation with Yang. He would ask generic questions about Beacon that could seem as if they were directed at both of his daughters. However, if you payed attention to his body language, it was painfully obvious that all of his questions were directed at Yang. Ruby was never able to find out if he did this intentionally or not, as she didn't really feel like she could ask him about it, but she did find out that he never got upset if she jumped in with an answer before Yang could. Though he would end up waiting for Yang to answer as well.

So that's what she did here. Every now and then as he asked a question she would jump in with an answer, earn a small response from her dad, and then continue listening to the conversation. That was fine with Ruby though. She actually enjoyed listening more than she enjoyed talking, as she felt that doing so allowed her to learn more about the people she was listening to. So she listened with a smile as Yang went about describing Beacon and the time they've spent there to the best of her abilities. One thing that Ruby had to admit was that Yang wasn't the best with words. If the younger girl was being perfectly honest, her older sister probably had the smallest vocabulary of any of her friends. The thing was that when Yang described things, the tone of her voice somehow enabled you to picture what she was trying to describe better than the words she was using.

Ruby was so focused on listening to her older sister explain their time at Beacon that she found herself getting lost in the memories that the blonde's descriptions brought up. She remembered all of the good times in Beacon, as those were the only things that Yang would describe. Yang had this gift where she could forget the bad and remember the good of any given situation or event. So Ruby found herself reliving all of the times where she first met her friends. After that she found herself once again living the perfect day she had planned for her team. It wasn't until her uncle Qrow interrupted that she was brought out of her memories.

"Hey squirt," the man with greying hair began as he stood up. "Want to go set some ice cream as dessert?"

"Of course!" Ruby said with excitement as she practically jumped out of her seat. "Who wouldn't want ice cream?"

"Let's go then," Qrow said as he started walking toward the front of the house with an energetic Ruby following him.

Yang's lilac eyes followed the two as they left the room. She continued to look toward the hallway until she heard the front door open and close. At which point in time she turned to face her dad and gave a sigh.

"Hey dad," she said softly. "Why don't you treat Ruby the same way you treat me?"

Taiyang sighed sadly as he seemed to sink into his seat. "I… I don't know Yang… It's … It's hard. I love both of you with all of my heart, always have, always will. With her though, when she was born, it was like she made my heart grow simply so I could process the amount of love I had for her. Then her mom died… and you saw how I responded to that. Do you know what made me start coming back to my senses?"

Yang shrugged in response and shook her head. She had a few guesses, but honestly had no idea if any of them were correct.

Taiyang nodded slightly as he responded. "I'm not surprised. I mean, I never told anyone so you'd have had to guess if you knew. It was you two. You and Ruby brought me out of that miserable place I was in. I had more love for the two of you than I had sorrow over Summer's death, and then we got the news about Ruby's condition. I had lost one of the three most important girls in my life, Yang, and then they told me that one of the two remaining wouldn't even survive to be a teenager… let alone live a full life."

"Wait," Yang said in shock. "You mean Rubes is supposed to be dead?"

A small nod was Taiyang's response. "There have been five confirmed cases of her disease. The other four all died when they were between nine and thirteen years old. So she's got that going for her at least. The only problem is no one knows what to do with that. All they can do is sit on their buts and ask themselves why she hasn't died yet." His fist landed on the table with a loud thump and the rattling of the dishes that had been left there. "It makes me feel so useless."

Yang kept her head down for a few seconds. "... That's no reason for you to treat Ruby like you do though," she said quietly.

"What?" Taiyang asked softly in confusion as he looked at his older daughter.

Yang looked up and glared at Taiyang. "I mean that she's still your daughter, and you should treat her as such. You've been treating her as an extra burden ever since you learned about her disease. Please at least from now on treat her like an actual daughter."

Taiyang paused as his eyes fell to his empty plate on the table. "You're right," he said with a sigh. "I've been a terrible parent all my life. Time to be a good one… for once."

* * *

Qrow couldn't help but smile as he led Ruby to the ice cream shop in Patch. That was something he noticed about her. No matter who you were, it was almost impossible to not smile if you had spent any real amount of time with the small yet energetic girl. He'd learned that when he had first seen Raven smile as she was taking care of Ruby as a baby. The sight had almost convinced him he'd had a little too much to drink that day. Funny thing was that, not five years later the small girl had convinced him to stop drinking all together.

It was with that thought that he entered the ice cream shop and asked Ruby what kind of ice cream she wanted.

"Neapolitan please!" She said happily as she walked over to a table and sat down.

"Got it," Qrow said as he walked up to the counter to purchase the ice cream. A mere moment later and he was sitting across from Ruby and they were both happily eating away at their ice cream.

"How're you feeling, Squirt?" Qrow asked in between bites of his Rocky Road.

Ruby stopped mid-bite before slowly swallowing and looking at her uncle."I'm assuming you're asking because of the 'overworking myself' incident."

"No. I'm asking because it's been all sunshine and daisies since I last met you," the grey-clad man responded with sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Yes, Ruby, I'm worried. Raven's worried. We just want to be there for you if you need it. Heck if it starts getting really bad, send us a message and we'll stop our work to come take care of you."

Ruby had been reduced to simply poking at her ice cream with a spoon as Qrow spoke. "Uncle Qrow… You know that every day is worse that the previous. Please let me have my good days be my happiest days."

"You know what? You're right. I'm being stupid by ruining such a good day as this with this kind of talk. Eat your ice cream. We're going to go back home and have a movie night." After Qrow finished that statement he took an extra large bit out of his rocky road ice cream, as if challenging Ruby.

Ruby responded by taking an equally large bite out of her neapolitan ice cream and trying to eat it as fast as she could manage. This prompted Qrow to also start eating his ice cream as quickly as he could. The result being the two leaving the shop with their heads clutched in their hands as they dealt with brain freezes.

"Every time!" Ruby yelled as they walked down the street. "You do this to me every time!"

"I do this to you?" Qrow asked in exasperation. "I just took a big bite. You're the one who turned it into a race. A race I won by the way."

"Well, was it worth it?" Ruby asked, head still clutched in her hands."

"Not at all… but it was fun."

That elicited a small giggle from the red-tipped brunette as she finally removed her head from her hands, the headache having receded to a manageable level. That was the main reason this happened every time. True they had to deal with a brain freeze, but it was fun and the brain freezes didn't last too incredibly long. "I'll have to challenge you to a rematch. I'll be sure to beat you one of these days."

"Don't plan on it, Squirt." Qrow said with a short laugh.

"I plan on it!" Ruby said while puffing out her cheeks in a small pout. "What movies are we going to watch tonight?"

"I was thinking something with explosions… lots of explosions."

"Sounds fun!"

The two proceeded to talk about which movies had lots of explosions until they got to the Xiao Long residence and walked in the front door. When they entered the house and called out to indicate that they were home, Taiyang entered the room, walked over to Ruby, and gave her a hug.

"I've been a terrible father," he said in a repentant tone of voice. "Can you forgive me for that?"

"Of course I can!" Ruby said with a bright smile. "Can we have a movie night? With lots of explosions?"

A smile found its way onto Taiyang's face as he looked at his younger daughter. "Of course we can."

 **A/N**

 **Hey everyone how's it going? Yeah this chapter is a little short… and a little late. I say that because I generally try to get at least one chapter out every seven days. I don't even have a good reason to be late either. I'm realizing though that that may be a fool's goal as I seem to get a chapter out late more often than I actually succeed at meeting my own deadline :/ that's an annoying thing to have to admit. Well anyway let me know how you liked the chapter! Hopefully I'll actually be able to keep my own schedule this time.**

 **B/N**

 **So, another chapter down, and I personally rather liked this one. (Might be because Ruby wasn't in pain for once *glares Shaded122*). While it did take a while to get to you, I promise you all I won't allow Shaded to leave this story unfinished, so just have a little patience with us both.**


	15. A Distressing Event

It was the day after the movie night at the Xiao-Long household and Ruby was sleeping in. Staying up all night to watch movies with her family had left her exhausted. As such it was only natural that she spent an extra large portion of that morning wandering around dreamland to make up for her lost sleep, or at least until Yang burst into her room with a loud, "Ruby! Wakey Wakey! We're gonna have a girls day out today!"

The sudden burst of noise shattered Ruby's dreams and brought her violently back into the world of the living. It took her a few moments to actually collect her bearings and realize what was happening. When she finally realized what was going on she glared half-heartedly at her sister. "Yang," she said with annoyance heavy in her voice. "It's like 2 p.m. … and we just had a movie night last night. Let me sleep some more."

"Nope!" Yang responded loudly. "You've let half of the day waste away already. Get up! It's time to get going."

"Alriiiight," Ruby said as she slowly got out of her bed. "Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed."

A little under ten minutes later Ruby walked out of her room in her casual clothes and ready to face the day. A small smile found its way onto her face as she walked down the hallway and into the living room to find her sister asleep on the couch. Walking over, she debated how she should wake her sister up before deciding to simply tip the couch over and spill her sister on the floor.

"What was that for?" The blonde asked in irritation as she scrambled to stand up.

"You woke me up and forced me to get ready. I'm not going to just sit here and let you nap." Ruby told her older sister matter-of-factly.

"Well you took a long time. Either way let's go." Yang said with mock impatience.

"Okay!" Ruby called out in response.

After that the two sisters left the house and walked down the trail to the main part of the small town that they called home. The town on Patch didn't really have all that much in the way of entertainment. It had a small arcade, and a couple of parks but that's really all there was. There wasn't that much variety as far as stores were concerned either. Actually, when someone thought about it, the only real entertainment value in patch came from friends and creative use of time. However with Yang that wasn't a problem. The blond sister had always excelled at finding creative ways to waste time, and it was because of that fact that Ruby let Yang take the lead for this excursion.

The first thing Yang decided to do was to hide a small 'treasure' and give a treasure map to a couple of little kids. Ruby and Yang smiled happily as the kids energetically took off to try and find the treasure before Ruby called out, "make sure you bring your parents, it's not safe out there."

The group of kids stopped to look at Ruby before turning and running off towards a store where the two sisters assumed their parents were shopping. "It's always fun to do that," Yang said with a wide smile on her face.

"It really is," Ruby said enthusiastically in response as she turned to look at her sister.

"So what do you want to do next?" the lilac-eyed sister asked, causing Ruby to take a couple of seconds to think.

"I don't really know. You're the one with all the fun ideas."

"How about we go to the arcade?" Yang asked. "I know it's small and there's not much there to do, but we can still have some fun."

"Sounds great!" Ruby responded happily as she started to walk towards the arcade. She was in the lead originally but Yang quickly took the lead to try and pace her younger sister. This ended up being something that the red-tipped brunette was really grateful for as partway through the walk she suddenly felt extremely weak and almost collapsed. Fortunately though, the weakness only lasted a small moment and she was quickly able to start walking normally again. Normally something like this would worry her but, as she was spending the day with her sister, and it only lasted a moment, she decided to ignore it for now and continue walking. Due to how small patch was it only took a couple of minutes before the two sisters actually got to the arcade.

"Welcome you two!" An older voice called out from the back of the arcade as the two entered. "It's been a while. How've you been doing?"

"We've been good, old man Tarence," the blond haired sister called back energetically. "We're just on break between semesters at Beacon."

"Well congratulations you two!" Tarence called back. "Have all the fun you two want today. I'll get you tokens for free."

"Thank you, but we still have some old ones we wanna use first!" Ruby called back in response as she bounced over to the air hockey table. "Hey Yang let's play air hockey!"

Yang laughed lightheartedly as she walked over to her sister. "Sure thing Rubes, just don't use your semblance this time," she said lightly. "I want a fair shot."

The silver-eyed sister visibly deflated as she heard that. "Aww… you're no fun," she said sadly before mumbling. "Besides, I'm pretty sure you're the one who used to say 'if you've got it, flaunt it.'"

After that the two sisters took their places on opposing sides of the table and started the game. The start was fairly predictable as Ruby pulled out on an early lead, quickly gaining three points before Yang even had a chance to score once. However as she was about to score her fourth point, she felt another bout of weakness and suddenly all she could do was struggle to remain standing, let alone score a point. So she was forced to watch as the shot from her sister slid past her guard in into the goal she was guarding. Earning Yang her first point.

"Hey, Ruby, are you taking it easy on me?" The blond haired sister asked in slight confusion. "That should have been easy to block."

Ruby, having recovered from her sudden weakness yet again, grinned challengingly at her sister. "Well you need all the handicaps you can get against me." She couldn't quite hide all of the anxiousness she felt, but it seemed to be enough to convince her sister for now. The second episode had convinced her that she'd need to talk to her family about it later, despite the fact that she really didn't want to.

The game continued with Ruby occasionally allowing Yang to get a point, but ultimately ending with Ruby as the victor with more than three times the points that Yang had. After that was over they went around playing every game in the small arcade once more. The arcade was filled with taunts and laughs the entire time the two sisters were present, as no matter what they were playing, they turned it into a competition. However as the arcade was rather small they couldn't stay for more than an hour or so without getting tired of the various games that it had. So almost as quickly as they entered, they left.

This time there was no conversation between the two sisters. Mainly because of the time. It was about six o'clock, and six o'clock was the time where Ruby's favorite store opened. So neither of the sisters felt a need to ask the other what they wanted to do. As it would only end up with them visiting the local night time bakery. A place with a running joke that they were only able to stay in business because of Ruby's patronage.

The two sisters entered the bakery with large smiles on their faces and then split up, with Ruby going to a table to wait while Yang went up to the counter to order some bread, cookies, and hot chocolate for the two of them. The smaller of the two sisters smiled brightly at Yang as she approached the table.

"Thank you for waking me up today, Yang," the silver eyed sister said happily. "Staying up until 6 in the morning is never a good idea."

Yang laughed loudly in response. "If you think it's a bad idea then why do you and Qrow do that every time?" She asked as she set the food and drinks on the table.

"What else are you supposed to do during a movie night? Fall asleep at a reasonable time?" Ruby asked in disbelief. "That'd ruin the spirit of movie night!"

"Yeah, well you're 'spirit of movie night' almost ruined our day together," the lilac-eyed girl responded with a short laugh. "Honestly, Rubes, I thought you'd at least be able to wake up semi early."

"Oh you make it sound like we lost a lot of time, Yang," Ruby responded playfully. "You woke up at 12:30 and you know it… also… are those cookies for me?"

Yang held a hand over her chest. "Oh you wound me. I need my sleep to stay beautiful, and only most of them. I want a cookie or two."

"Thanks, Yang!" Ruby said as she started picking up cookies two at a time and devouring them at a rapid pace. Relative silence fell over the sisters until Ruby had eaten all but two of the cookies and turned to the baker behind the counter. "Those cookies were delicious. Thank you!"

"No problem, Ruby. Thank you for always stopping by!" The lady behind the counter called back.

For a few seconds after that Yang just looked at her sister in silence. "You know, Rubes… I'll never understand how you can eat so many cookies so quickly."

"It's easy… you just eat them," Ruby said while giving her older sister a confused look.

"That's not what I meant and you know it," the blonde responded light heartedly. "Either way I'm glad we were able to do this. I know we hang out a lot with Weiss and Blake, but it is nice to just have a day to us sisters."

"Yup! This is the best." the shorter girl responded happily. "I'm grateful for this. Of course that might just be because, for once, you forgot about me being sick."

The sister with lilac colored eyes sighed sadly in response. "I didn't forget. I was just able to put it in the back of my mind."

Ruby stood up and walked around the table. "Either way I'm really grateful," she said as she gave her older sister a hug. "Now I guess we should finish our hot chocolate and get going shouldn't we?"

After a nod from Yang, both of the sisters quickly finished their drinks and left the bakery. On the way out of the bakery, another wave of weakness hit Ruby, and this one lasted. Without any warning or way to prevent it Ruby collapsed with a thud. She started quickly trying to move various parts of her body to see how bad it was, before realizing that she quite literally couldn't move anything. Panic started to settle in, however it didn't get far as Ruby ended up blacking out only a couple of seconds after collapsing.

When Yang heard the thump of a body falling she froze. Her fear that she'd turn around and find her little sister dying had frozen her in her place. It took her a few seconds for her to confront her fears, turn around, and find her sister in a heap on the ground. As quickly and gently as she could she picked Ruby up, and darted toward their house. As she ran the phrase 'please don't take my sister away from me,' was constantly repeating in her mind. When she finally arrived at home she threw the door open and placed Ruby on the couch. Praying to everything in the world that her little sister would be okay.

 **A/N**

 **Hey everyone how's it going? Sorry this chapter took so long but it's been fighting me hardcore. Good new is that I'm going to be shooting to have all the chapters written/typed up in the next few days so updates should be faster now ( though they'll probably be a little shorter than I like, and that's assuming nothing falls apart on me). Bad news is that it means the story is ending faster I guess. Nyway please leave a review telling me what you like and don't like about the story. Have an awesome day guys.**


	16. A New Start

Yang sighed lightly to herself as she saw Beacon approaching through the windows of the bullhead. The vacation hadn't been the best of events for her family. As witnessed by the fact that Ruby was sitting down on the bench rather than standing next to Yang at the window. It had started out well enough. The problem being that when Ruby collapsed, she never truly got better. True Ruby could walk on her own now, but she was nowhere near as strong or energetic as she used to be. The blonde couldn't help but think that maybe Ruby's body had finally reached it's limit and was giving in, and it was partially her fault for dragging her little sister around all day before it happened. However Ruby wouldn't want Yang to think those kind of thoughts.

A blonde head turned and lilac eyes roamed the bullhead searching for a familiar red-clad figure sitting on a bench. A small smile formed on the blonde's previously blank face as she gave a small wave to her silver-eyed sister who was giving her a slightly questioning look. The look was fake though. Yang knew that Ruby knew why she was worried, and she also knew that Ruby didn't blame her for her worry or for the red-tipped brunette's collapse. The younger sister did however ask Yang to try and hide her worry, at least in public places. It was a request Yang was incredibly uncomfortable with though. Ruby was her little sister, and she wanted nothing more than to protect the scythe wielding, weapon loving, girl. However as Ruby had pointed out earlier, Yang's worrying wouldn't make the illness go away. So Yang had to put her worry aside to the best of her abilities and simply be there to help when she could.

Yang walked across the bullhead and sat down next to her younger sister. "Hey, sis, we're almost there. You ready?"

A small sigh escaped the smaller girl's lips. "I can walk … it's the whole talking to Weiss and Blake that I'm not sure about."

"Rubes," Yang started only to be cut off by the other girl.

"I know, Yang," Ruby said quickly while looking at the floor. Her quiet voice betraying the fear she felt. "They need to know, but I'm a little afraid about how they'll react." Ruby moved her right hand in front of her face and stared at it. "I think … for once… I wish I wasn't sick."

Yang gave Ruby an incredulous look. " 'for once'? You mean you were never upset about being sick before?"

The red-tipped brunette shook her head slightly. "I've always accepted it and strove to do my best despite what everyone else expected me to do. There were plenty of 'what if's and 'if only's though. I never did like the pain I was putting dad through, or the pain I'd eventually put you through, but now … with you, Blake, Weiss, Velvet, and some of the other friends I've made … I really dread hurting you guys when I _leave_ , and I feel like I've finally realized that… I'm missing out on something as well."

Yang reached out to give her sister a sideways hug. "It's okay, Ruby. You just focus on staying alive and we'll cherish every moment we have with you. Just like how you cherish every moment you have with Raven."

A small smile found it's way onto the silver eyed sister's face. "Alright, Yang. Thanks for that." Ruby said as she returned the hug from her sister.

The two remained in silence for the final minute or two of the bullhead flight. When the aircraft landed they were the last to leave and start the walk to their dorm room. Ruby's new found weakness forcing them to walk slower than either would have liked. So it was no surprise that when they finally got to their dorm room that Weiss and Blake were already there. What did strike the two as surprising was the fact that Velvet and Pyrrha were there as well.

"Hey guys… what's up?" Ruby greeted quietly as she walked slowly to her desk.

"Nothing much Ruby," Velvet said in response. "Pyrrha and I got settled in fairly quickly and we wanted to welcome you back to Beacon. Though we had expected you to be in your room before we were. Then again I guess you arrived on one of the later bullheads?"

Ruby nodded slightly as she sat down at her desk. "The last one actually, but that's not the entire reason we were so slow."

That got everyone's attention. "Are you sick?" Weiss asked with concern evident in her voice.

Ruby's response was to give Yang a pleading look, which after a couple of seconds earned a sigh and a nod from the older sister. "She collapsed over break and hasn't fully recovered since."

The silver-eyed girl suddenly found herself surrounded by concerned friends. Normally being surrounded by friends was a good thing for her, now however it was something that was more suffocating than anything. Especially since she had one more bit of news to drop on them before she got cold feet.

"That's not all either," Ruby said quietly. "This … is probably as good as I'm going to get from now on. I stopped getting 'better' a couple of days ago."

Suddenly the youngest girl in the room found herself in the center of a large group hug. An event that she found surprisingly comfortable, as the idea of group hugs had always seemed like a bad one to her. However as she felt the warmth and the love from her friends she realized that she really loved group hugs. A few moments after it started she heard Blake's voice whisper, "it's okay, Ruby, we're here to help in any way we can." Which was followed by various sounds of agreement.

"I have the best friends," Ruby responded quietly as she allowed herself to lean against whoever happened to be directly behind her. "I'm really glad I got into Beacon."

A ringing sound interrupted the group hug. The first response was an annoyed sound from Velvet as she removed herself from the hug to check her scroll for messages. Which prompted a deep sigh. "I'm sorry guys," the rabbit faunus said sadly. "My team apparently needs me back at my dorm. I'll be back tomorrow"

It was then Pyrrha's turn to remove herself from the hug. "I'm sorry as well. My team only expected me to be gone for a couple of minutes. I'll make sure to spend more time with you guys from now on."

"Well that kind of ruined it," Yang stated after the other two had left the room. Eliciting a small giggle from Ruby.

"It was a great hug while it lasted," the silver-eyed girl said quietly. "Though I'm really tired now. Walking took more out of me than I had expected."

A sad, yet irritated look found its way onto Yang's face before she turned to leave the room. After she left Blake and Weiss looked at Ruby questioningly, causing Ruby to sigh in response.

"She blames herself for my current weakness. She's probably headed to the gym to calm herself down. Blake… could you follow her. Keep her from dropping weights on herself or something stupid."

"Sure thing, Ruby," Blake said before giving Ruby a short hug and also leaving the room.

Weiss watched Blake leave, before turning back to Ruby and waiting a couple of seconds. "Dropping weights on herself?" She asked in disbelief.

Ruby smiled lightly. "It's one of her two ways of punishing herself for doing something stupid. The other one is fighting trees or rocks bare-handed."

"That's … more than a little odd," the white-haired heiress responded.

"It is, but there's also the fact that thanks to her semblance, those kind of things don't actually hurt her. She simply finds it easier to focus and forget things if she's in a 'combat' situation or doing something that 'should' hurt her."

"I guess I'll drop the subject then," Weiss said as she glanced from Ruby to two sisters' belongings and then back to Ruby. "Is there anything I can do for you, Ruby? I know you're exhausted."

"Actually," Ruby said with some hesitation. "I … I'm a little too weak to get into my own bed. Would you mind switching bunks with me?"

Weiss gave ruby a kind smile before answering, "yes, Ruby, I can switch bunks with you. Do you want me to make your bed for you?"

"That'd be awesome."

The blue-eyed girl quickly got to work removing her stuff from what was now Ruby's bed and placing them to the side before carefully replacing it with Ruby's stuff. The process only took her a few minutes, even counting when she put her stuff on what was now her bed. All in all she was happy with herself and the speed with which she was able to do that for her partner. As she turned around to tell Ruby that the younger girl's bed was made she found that her partner had fallen asleep already. A small smile graced the face of the Snow Queen of Beacon before she pulled Ruby's blankets back, picked the younger girl up gently, placed her in her bed, and then pulled the blankets up to cover her. She then watched for a few moments as her team leader rolled onto her side and got into a comfortable position despite not having woken up.

Weiss continued smiling as she went about the process of finishing her day. It really was amazing what being around your friends could do. Even if she received some very saddening news today. The idea that Ruby was really weak was something that Weiss felt uncomfortable dealing with, however she resolved herself to help Ruby in any way she could. It was with that in mind that she knelt next to Ruby's bed before climbing up to her own bunk.

"Ruby," Weiss began quietly so as to not wake her partner up. "You've given us some of the most amazing things ever. You're the best friend I've ever had. You're one of the most amazing people I've ever met, and you helped me become friends with Blake and Velvet who have shown themselves to be two very good friends to me. Not only that but you've helped me understand what it really means to be a good person. Thank you. Let us give some back to you though. You're going to need our help in the future. Please don't hesitate to ask."

Having said what she wanted to say, even if Ruby was sleeping, Weiss climbed up to her bunk and prepared for sleep to claim her consciousness. However before that could happen she heard soft words meet her ears from the bunk underneath her.

"I didn't realize I had given you so much. I guess it helps explain how you don't realize how much you've given me."

"We're friends Ruby," Weiss said in response. "We give stuff to each other. That's just a part of how it works."

Weiss couldn't see it but she knew that Ruby had a content smile on her face. "I'm just glad that I found friends as amazing as you guys."

Weiss' lips formed a wide smile. "I'm glad you found us as well Ruby. You have helped me become a much better person."

A sleepy response of, "I'm glad," drifted up from Ruby's bunk. After which both of the two remaining in the dorm fell asleep with peaceful smiles on their faces.

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys hope you enjoyed the chapter. As you can probably see we're coming up to the final moments of the story, which may or may not last longer than you're expecting. Nyway leave a review and let me know how you like it.**

 **Beta note: Awwwww, this ending was so cute it gave me cavities. (Sadly I fear that will last). As always, it's a joy to work with Shaded, and please do leave a review.**


	17. As the Stars Progress

Ruby woke up to the unfamiliar sight of a bed hanging over her. After a moment of slight panic, due to thinking she was in Weiss' bed, she remembered that she had switched bunks with white-haired heiress and calmed down. She then set her mind to taking stock of her current condition, which was weak. She was incredibly weak. Thankfully, she wasn't otherwise sick or in pain, but she couldn't be expected to do much more than walk to class and sit down.

The silver-eyed girl shook her head from side to side as she moved to get out of bed. This was the new 'normal' for her. Unless they find a cure or treatment or something, she'll never be as strong as she was a couple of weeks ago. Looking around she realized that the rest of her teammates were still asleep. Meaning that she had a few minutes of peace and quiet to just enjoy the fact that she was back at Beacon, or she would have if her scroll hadn't started ringing on her desk.

She walked over to her desk with a questioning look on her face and answered her scroll without even bothering to look at it. "Hello, this is Ruby," she said quietly as she looked around to make sure everyone was still asleep.

"Hello Miss Rose," the headmaster's voice said from her scroll.

"Professor Ozpin!"

"I apologize for the timing of this call, however there's something I need to tell you."

A cold pit formed in Ruby's stomach as she heard him say that. "W-What is it?" She asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Your father called to inform us of the recent developments regarding your health," Ozpin said calmly, his voice only hinting at sorrow. "Naturally we had to hold a council to decide whether or not you should remain as a student here."

Ruby found herself holding her breath for several seconds before realizing that the headmaster was waiting for her response. "Do… Do I need to pack my things?"

A short sigh was heard from her scroll. "No, Miss Rose, you do not. It was of course decided that you are not well enough to attend any classes whatsoever, however we believe that you are a shining example to the other students of what a true huntress is. So we'd like to request that you stay on the academy's grounds until further notice. Is that okay?"

What had been budding tears of sorrow quickly turning into free falling tears of joy as Ruby stated her acceptance of the request from the school. "Y-yes… that'd be great! Thank you."

"It is no problem, Miss Rose. One more thing though. Until further notice your team will need a new leader. I will leave it up to you to chose who it is."

"Alright," Ruby responded in a contemplative tone of voice. "Thanks for everything, Professor Ozpin."

"Thank Glynda, she's the one that decided that you're an example to the other students. Everyone else just agreed. Though I do need to go now, Miss Rose. Have a great day, and good luck in your recovery."

"Thank you, Professor. Have a good day," the sickly girl responded before exiting the scroll and putting it down on her desk. She then sat down and looked at the wall for a few moments before breathing out a short sigh of relief and wiping the tears off of her cheeks.

"What's up, Ruby?" Asked a familiar voice from across the room.

Looking to her side, Ruby saw a black-haired cat faunus pushing herself into a sitting position. "Sorry, Blake, did I wake you?" She waited for her friends response, which was a simple shake of her head, before continuing. "Professor Ozpin called to tell me that I don't have to attend classes anymore, and need to assign one of you guys as the new team leader until further notice. I'm allowed to stay at Beacon though."

A series of quick, yet quiet strides brought the cat-faunus to Ruby's side so she could give her team leader a comforting hug. "I'm glad you're able to stay. That call must have been really stressful."

Ruby turned in her chair to face Blake, and returned the hug. "I'm just glad I get to stay with my friends."

Blake broke the hug and took a small step away from the smaller girl. "Do you know who you're going to pick as your 'replacement'?"

Ruby looked up at the raven-haired girl for a few seconds before humming softly in thought. "Definitely not Yang as that'd be all kinds of trouble, and you wouldn't really be comfortable being a team leader… So I was thinking Weiss, but I need to wait for the other two to wake up first.."

"That seems fair," Blake said with a small smile. "Thanks for thinking about me during that."

"No problem, Blake!" the silver-eyed girl said happily. "Now, could you wake up Weiss and Yang? We have to talk a little bit as a team before you guys get ready for classes."

"Of course, Ruby," the older girl responded before standing up and walking over to Weiss' bed. Once there she gave the sleeping heiress a gentle shake. "Weiss… get up. Ruby wants to talk to us before we go to class."

"Mmm?" Was the sleepy response that came from Weiss. "Okay… I'll get down."

Walking over to the other side of the room. Blake grabbed Yang by the arm and pulled hard. The blonde fell into a glorious pile on the ground before jumping up. "I'm awake. I'm awake. What's up?"

"Ruby wants to talk to us before we have to get ready for class," Blake said calmly. "Sorry I have to wake you up in such a rough way."

"It's better than a bucket of water," Yang said with a shrug and a light hearted chuckle.

In only a couple of seconds the three team members were all sitting down in front of Ruby waiting for her to speak up. After a few moments of relative silence Ruby opened her mouth. "So, as I've told Blake, Ozpin has told me that I don't need to attend classes anymore, but am allowed to stay at Beacon. The thing is, since I'm doing so badly I need to pick one of you to be team leader in my absence." She paused for a moment to take a breath. "Weiss… can you lead team RWBY for now?"

"I'll do my best to not let you down Ruby," Weiss said with a smile.

"Also," the youngest of the group added, gaining the attention of the others. "I need to ask you guys to do something for me."

"What is it, Rubes?" Yang asked in concern when Ruby went quiet for a few seconds.

"You remember how, when I was sick, you made a little schedule so I'd never be alone?" Ruby asked, earning a nod from each of her teammates. "I … I'm going to need you to do that again. The doctors say my health isn't as stable anymore, so we'll never know when/if I'll get sick again."

"Of course, Ruby," Blake said as she moved forward to give the smaller girl a hug.

"I'll talk to Velvet in class today," Weiss said. "Are you going to stay in the dorm today?"

Ruby nodded. "I'm really weak. I want to save what little strength I have."

"I'll stay with you today then," Blake said in response.

"Alright. That's the plan for today then," Weiss said happily before turning to face Yang. "We need to get ready."

"Right," Yang said before giving her sister a quick hug. "I know we're not leaving yet, but we'll be back later Rubes. Have a good one until then."

"Have a good one, Sis," Ruby replied while returning the hug.

It didn't take long for the Weiss and Yang to get ready for classes and leave. The two sending a casual goodbye to their teammates as they left the room. Shortly after, Ruby and Blake both started reading their own books while enjoying each other's silent company. The two were sitting side by side on Ruby's bed as they progressed through the stories they were enjoying. Eventually Blake felt a sudden pressure on her side that nearly caused her to jump. When she looked down she realized what had happened, and became really glad that she didn't jump. Ruby had fallen asleep, and fell onto Blake.

With a smile on her lips, Blake reached around to both hug Ruby, as well as make sure she didn't fall again. The amber-eyed girl then proceeded to start humming a series of short lullabies to help ensure that Ruby slept peacefully.

* * *

Yang and Weiss were walking back to their dorm alongside teams JNPR and CFVY. The two had already told their other friends about Ruby's health decline, and of Ruby's wish to not be left alone for a while. Velvet had immediately volunteered to be put on the rotation again, while everyone else simply settled for visiting whenever they could. Now just so happened to be a part of 'whenever they could.'

Weiss and Yang were smiling happily as they traveled with their friends. Not only because of the fact that they were able to reconnect with said friends, but also because they were leading those friends to Ruby who would love the visit.

When the two got to the room it took all the self-control Yang could muster to stop herself from barging in and yelling about their arrival. However by some miracle she ended up simply entering quietly and looking around. She was immediately glad she did, as she was greeted by the image of her little sister resting against Blake, who was humming softly while also holding a finger to her lips. It took the blonde no time at all to pull out her scroll and take a couple of pictures while simultaneously gesturing for the others to enter the room.

The room was silent for a few moments as everyone took in the scene with small smiles on their faces, before Blake gently shook Ruby awake. Unlike in the mornings it actually took Ruby a few moments to fully wake up and look around. When she did a bright smile found its way onto her face. "Hey everyone!" The silver-eyed girl greeted happily. "How're you guys doing today?"

A short group laugh was followed by a chorus of people affirming that they were doing well. After that Velvet stepped forward. "Weiss and Yang told us about what happened. Are you doing okay?"

"Are you kidding?" Ruby asked happily as she stood up. "My friends all came by to visit me. I'm doing great!" After that statement she walked forward to give everyone a hug. Even her own teammates.

Yang held her sister by her side after their hug was over. "So what are we going to do for the night?" The blonde asked the group.

"How about you guys play 'Remnant: The Game'?" Ruby asked quietly. "I'm still really tired so I think I'm going to sit out and probably fall asleep while watching you guys play."

"I'm game," Yang said happily.

"I'd be fine with playing that game," Jaune said with a light shrug. "Should I go get it?" When no one objected, the blonde boy left the room to get the game while everyone else set up an area in the middle of the room to use for the game.

"I think this will be the biggest game of Remnant I've ever played," Pyrrha said after a few moments.

"I think it'll be the biggest game anyone's ever played," Ruby responded from her bed.

"Isn't that Weiss' bed?" Nora asked in confusion as she looked over at Ruby. "I could have sworn that was Weiss' bed."

"We switched bunks," Weiss said calmly as Jaune re-entered the room.

The group set up the game fairly quickly and set about playing the played the game far later into the night than they really should have, and yet no one really won. When they finally decided to drop the game, the board was a mess of factions and armies to the point that no one was clearly winning. Normally they would have packed the game as everyone left to go to their own dorms, however they really wanted Ruby to see what they were able to accomplish, so they left the board as it was and left as quietly as they could so as to not disturb their friend.

 **A/N**

 **Hey everyone how's it going? This chapter wasn't originally supposed to be a part of the story… however I decided that it kinda needs to be here to help the story along a little bit. As such (it being a last minute decision) I apologize if it feels a little off. I hope that I did a good enough job to make it seem natural though. Please leave a review telling me what you think of the story/chapter!**


	18. The Stars Misalign

It was about two weeks into Beacon's second semester and everything seemed to be going okay. Ruby's team and Velvet had gotten into the habit of taking turns staying by Ruby's side and generally everyone benefitted from the arrangement. Ruby always had someone to talk to or help her if she needed it, and her friends got to spend more time with her, though she wished that they could spend time with her for a different reason. She was sure that something would happen soon though. She didn't know how bad it'd be, only that her illness would act up in some way, shape or form.

She woke up the next day to a burning pain all over her body and a level of weakness worse than she had recently grown used to. The red-tipped brunette didn't need to look at her scroll to know that it was early in the morning. Good night's sleep was a thing of the past for her, and she always woke up early anyway. Her silver eyes roamed around as she tried to decide what to do. She could wake up Blake or Weiss and talk to them, but she didn't want to bother them when they had classes that day. Eventually, she decided that her current condition overrode her desires to let them rest. So she reached up and pulled on the comforter that Weiss was using. The soft, yet warm, fabric fell to the floor in a heap and not long after Weiss woke up.

"Ruby?" Came the gentle and concerned voice from Ruby's partner.

"Hey Weiss," Ruby said. Grimacing at the pain that was quite evident in her voice. "I'm doing really bad today. Do you think you can spend a little time down here with me before you have to get ready for class?"

"Of course," Weiss answered. Already moving to lower herself from her bed. Only a few seconds passed before Weiss was able to position herself next to Ruby and give her a gentle hug. "What's wrong?"

"I have a burning pain everywhere," the younger girl answered while hugging back softly. The pain in her voice making the heiress immediately pull back from the hug in fear of hurting her team leader. "And I'm weaker than I normally am."

"Is there anything I can do?" Weiss asked as her blue eyes searched the room for anything that might help Ruby, before refocusing on the pained girl.

Ruby gave a slight shake of her head. "Not much anyone can do I guess," she said softly to hide the pain. She then lifted her left hand, which had been resting above her blankets, and said, "mom used to hold my hand to comfort me. Would you mind holding my hand?"

The heiress cautiously reached forward to hold Ruby's hand in a gentle grip before placing it gently on the mattress. "I can do that for you Ruby," she said with a small smile. "I just wish there was more that I could do."

"You have no idea how much you and the others help me on a daily basis," the red-tipped brunette responded with a forced smile before allowing her mind to drift. She loved her friends dearly and greatly appreciated their place in her life, though there were somethings that each of them could do that she couldn't for the life of her explain. An example being that Weiss seemed incapable of hurting her at all. Right now her hand should be burning due to the physical contact. Yet because it was Weiss who was holding her hand, instead she felt a coolness in her hand that wasn't painful at all. This allowed her to focus on her hand and temporarily forget all of her pain, which resulted in Ruby falling back asleep.

Weiss stayed next to Ruby, gently holding her hand, for about an hour before Blake woke up. The cat faunus sat up and looked across the room to see what Weiss was doing, and without saying a word she silently made her way to be next to her teammate. "Is she doing okay?"

Weiss shook her head slowly. "She said there's a burning pain all around her body, and that she's weaker than normal."

Amber eyes met icy blue eyes. "Is there nothing we can do to help her?" The raven-haired girl asked quietly.

"She said her mom used to hold her hand as a way of comforting her, and then asked me to hold her hand," Weiss responded. "I think that's about all any of us can do."

"Alright," Blake responded. "Do you want to watch her today?"

Weiss nodded. "Sorry Blake, I know you were looking forward to reading books with her today."

"No problem Weiss. I don't think we'd be reading that much anyway… I wouldn't be able to enjoy it if she's not doing well."

Weiss sighed lightly. "I just wish… well… I wish for a lot of things. That she'll be able to recover, that we could do more, That the scientists that I asked Ironwood to fund would actually find a cure, but mainly that we can actually be there for her when she needs it."

The raven-haired girl placed a comforting hand on the white-haired heiress. "We've been there for her so far, Weiss. So you can rest assured that that hope isn't in vain at least."

Weiss gave her teammate a small smile. "Thanks, Blake."

"No problem, Weiss."

With that Blake left Weiss' side to wake up Yang and get ready for class. When Yang woke up she looked over at Weiss and Ruby before letting out a sad sigh and starting to get ready for classes. The minutes it took the two to prepare passed in silence, but as the two left Yang turned around and whispered, "Have a nice rest Rubes. I hope you're feeling better when I get back."

Weiss smiled as she watched Yang leave. The older of the two sisters was never comfortable with watching Ruby while the younger girl was sick. However Yang had been an amazing caretaker recently, though she was always a little off in the mornings. Weiss figured that Yang allowed herself a few moments of sadness in the mornings before pushing it to the side and doing her best to take care of her sister.

* * *

Velvet was walking to team RWBY's dorm room by herself. Unfortunately team JNPR had been given a small assignment in the forest and both Blake and Yang had some make-up quizzes they needed to take. That and the fact that her team needed to go to their room and prepare for an upcoming assignment. It was going to be a simple mission that would only require two of them, but they decided that the three of them would go just to be on the safe side.

When Velvet got to team RWBY's dorm room she simply knocked lightly before letting herself in, as they always left the door unlocked now. When she entered she was greeted by the sight of both Weiss and Ruby sleeping peacefully. Ruby was laying on her bed while holding Weiss' hand, while Weiss was sitting on the floor and letting her head rest on Ruby's bed. Her first thought was about how adorable the scene in front of her was. Her second thought was to debate whether or not she should simply leave the room and let the two rest in peace. After a few seconds of debating she realized that Weiss would have some serious cramps if she stayed in that position for too long and walked over to the heiress to put a hand on her shoulder.

Weiss stirred slightly before lifting her head up and looking at Velvet. "Hi Velvet. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good Weiss. I was just worried that you might get cramps if you kept sleeping like that," the rabbit-faunus answered slightly. "How has your day been?"

Weiss looked back down at Ruby before sighing. "She's in pain."

Velvet's brown eyes blinked before she nodded. "I know. Yang told me before she went to take her make-up exam."

Weiss smiled. "I think it's interesting how she's managed to bring us all together."

"How so?" The brunette faunus asked with curiosity.

"Well… I don't know you all that well, but me Yang and Blake are very different people. I honestly think it could be considered a miracle that I don't absolutely hate Yang, but somehow, Ruby brought us all together and made us the best of friends."

Velvet hummed quietly in thought. "I don't know. I definitely trusted you more simply because you were friends with her, but I also think that all of you are good people as well."

"Thanks Velvet," Weiss said with a smile before frowning slightly. "I hate to ask this of you… but would mind switching places with me? I need to go shopping for the team. If not it's fine. I can wait for the others to come back."

"Sure," the brown-eyed girl responded. "Not a problem."

After that Weiss slowly removed her hand from Ruby's stood up. She then started stretching while Velvet sat down to take her place. "She said that it comforts her to hold someone's hand… though if you don't want to then just sitting close to her should help somewhat as well."

"Isn't she in pain?" Velvet asked while giving Weiss a questioning look.

"Yes," Weiss confirmed. "She didn't seem to notice it when I was holding her hand though. Just make sure to have a gentle grip and you should be fine."

Velvet nodded slightly before slowly moving her hand to gently grip Ruby's. "Have a good one, Weiss. I'll see you when you get back."

"See you later, Velvet." Weiss responded as she was getting ready to leave. "And thank you, Velvet."

"No need to thank me, Weiss," Velvet responded with a small smile. "She'd do this and more for any of us."

"True," the blue-eyed girl said. "But not everyone would help her out like you have. Anyway I'll be back." With that she left and the room suddenly fell into silence. The rabbit-faunus suddenly very much understood how Weiss fell asleep in that position. The overbearing silence and the fact that you couldn't really do much combined to make sleep a very appealing course of action. So she decided to turn it into a little game. If she fell asleep then Ruby would win, and if she was able to stay awake then she won. Why in the world she was competing with Ruby was something that she couldn't quite explain.

Velvet gathered all of her considerable willpower and used it to help herself stay awake. Thinking of anything she could to help distract herself from the idea of sleeping. She thought about her first mission with team CFVY. Her most recent sparring match in Glynda's class. She even thought about Professor Port's class, which was only mildly less boring than sitting in a silent room trying to avoid falling asleep. Needless to say, all of the things that she had to think of could keep her awake for hours, however simply having that many things to think of and actually being able to do so are two very different things.

Yang and Blake walked in on a scene very similar to the scene that Velvet herself walked in on.

 **A/N**

 **Hey everyone how's it going? This was a relatively short chapter and I'm sorry about that, but I just couldn't think of a way to lengthen it without merging it with the next chapter… and… Ruby is in pain now… so that's a thing… and Weiss spent most of her day sitting on the floor to help comfort Ruby, and then Velvet took her place. Who stayed up longer? The world may never know. Please leave a review telling me what you think of the chapter and/or story in general.**

 **B/N**

 **Hi there o/ So Ruby is in pain, and I take NO responsibility for it. I keep trying to talk him out of hurting her more, but only time will tell just how cruel Shaded is. Please leave a review, for each of them, I'll poke him and tell him to stop hurting Ruby.**

 **Shaded: she… makes it sound like I enjoy hurting Ruby… I don't. I was originally trying to write two chapters but had to stop due to almost crying myself to sleep.**


	19. The Fatal Realization

Ruby couldn't sleep at all. The pain she was feeling had finally grown far too great for her to be able to sleep peacefully. The silver-eyed girl would be much happier if that was the only thing, but she was also cold now. Despite being underneath her blankets she could not get warm for the life of her. This new symptom had her really worried, the pain she could deal with. Sure she would have restless nights, but eventually she'd fall asleep due to exhaustion, or she could just have a team member hold her hand or something until she fell asleep again. The cold though, that was something she had never had to deal with before. It could only mean one thing; She was getting worse, and from the way she felt, she had already crossed the line of no return.

A war started in the young team leader's mind as she debated whether or not to tell her team. Yes, this would be something that they'd want to know about, as well as something that they should know about, however, she wasn't sure if she could bear to watch the concern, worry, and sorrow, that they would be sure to feel flash across their faces. She had watched the same thing happen every time she had updated them about her condition, even back when she had initially told them about her disease, and she wasn't sure she could bear it another time.

The red-tipped brunette didn't really know how long she had been debating. All she knew was that it had formed a pattern. Her own fear would start winning out, and she'd start thinking that she could get away without telling her friends. At least until a series of thoughts would creep into her mind. ' _What if I was in their shoes? Would I want to know? They've been with me this entire time. I owe them this much.'_ Those thoughts would completely destroy her current line of thought and nearly bring her to waking up her team and telling them right then and there. She couldn't do that though. Her team had several tests today and needed their rest. So she waited, and debated, until her team woke up.

She continued to wait after her entire team had woken up. There was still one more person who would be there today that would need to know. She didn't have much longer to wait, as Velvet walked into the dorm room with a quiet, "Hello."

"I need to tell you guys something," Ruby said with her voice laced in pain. She had decided to get straight to the point. She knew that if she started with small talk, her fear would take over and she'd never tell them. "I can feel myself getting worse. I'm sorry." A small ghost of a smile appeared on the small girl's face as she looked at her friends. "...I'm losing the fight." Then came the faces that she knew she would see. Anger and sorrow on her sister's face, a mixture of concern and fear on Weiss', while Blake and Velvet's faces showed mostly fear with some sorrow as well. The fear was something that Ruby hadn't really seen before, and it hit her harder than all the other emotions she saw in her friends. Tears started Rolling down the young girl's cheeks as she stared at her friends and realized just how much they cared.

Yang was the first one to recover. "I'm going to call dad and Qrow. I'll be right back," the lilac-eyed girl said quietly as she moved to leave the room.

Ruby watched her sister leave through tear-filled eyes. "I'm really sorry," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, as her sister left.

"It's not your fault, Ruby," Velvet responded soothingly as she walked towards the younger girl's bed and gave a sad, yet warm smile. "Don't blame yourself for something you can't control."

"She's right," Weiss said, stepping up beside Velvet. "You've done a lot for us, Ruby. I do still hope that we'll find a way for you to survive, but even if that doesn't happen I want you to know that the time that I've spent with you has been some of the most meaningful, and most happy moments of my life. Thank you, Ruby. For simply being who you are."

Blake walked up behind Weiss. "You taught me that hiding who I really am isn't the right thing to do, Ruby. You showed me what it means to be true to myself. I'd rather have those lessons, along with all the memories that we've been able to make together, than have you be a perfectly healthy, yet different, person. Don't apologize, Ruby. Just know that we've cherished, and will continue to cherish, every moment with you in our lives."

For a single moment Ruby was able to forget the pain she felt as she was enveloped by the love of her friends. "Thank you guys," she said with a shaky voice as her silver eyes shed tears freely. "I'm really lucky to have such amazing friends."

The four of them found themselves silently crying in the comfort of each other's company for a few minutes. Eventually the three standing all fell to their knees to wrap Ruby in their arms. Weiss had her arms around Ruby's neck and was crying into Ruby's bed with her face mere inches away from the younger girl's. Blake had her arms wrapped around Ruby's torso and was actually crying into the smaller girl's shoulder, and Velvet had wrapped her arms around the sickly girl's waist, her head resting on the bed next to Ruby's stomach. Yes it was a little cramped for the four of them, but the comfort they felt from being close to each other was more than worth it to them.

When they heard the door open a few minutes later, the three healthy huntresses in training all stood up slowly and wiped the tears from their eyes. They turned to see Yang wiping away some tears of her own. "Uncle Qrow said that he and Raven will be here as soon as they can," the blonde said quietly. "Dad's trying to get people to cover for him at his work, but he's not sure if he can make it."

"Thanks, Yang," Ruby whispered as the pain she felt during the embrace with her friends finally fully registered. "You guys unfortunately have tests today, so you can't stay with me, but I'll still be here when you get back. I'm not letting myself die for a while yet. Just you see."

"Alright, Rubes," the taller sister responded with a sad nod. "I promise we'll head right here after classes."

A weak, pained smile found its way onto Ruby's face. "I'll hold you three to that promise."

With that Ruby's three teammates gathered their belongings and left the dorm room. A quick glance at her scroll told Velvet and Ruby, that they had left a little early. The two couldn't blame them though. They were probably trying to find their own ways of dealing with the news they were just given. After a few moments Velvet sat down next to Ruby's bed and gave the pained girl a soft smile before reaching her hand towards Ruby's. It took some effort on Ruby's part, but the silver-eyed girl slowly moved her hand towards Velvet's, the two ending up holding hands. This had become the standard for whoever was watching Ruby. They always sat next to the sickly girl's bed and held her hand.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" The brown-eyed girl asked softly.

Ruby gave a slight shake of her head. "Not really," she whispered painfully. "How's your team's mission going? Any updates?"

"They're doing fine," Velvet said happily. "Coco said that they're effectively letting Yatsuhashi do all of the fighting. It's a small time job but for some reason there are a lot more grimm than were originally expected. All in all they're glad that the three of them decided to go, but they don't think that they'll have any real issues."

"That's good." Ruby said with a weak smile. A few seconds later her eyes snapped over to her dresser. "I just thought of something you could do for me. Could you go over to my dresser and grab the box from the lowest drawer?"

"Of course, Ruby," Velvet responded while getting up from where she was sitting. She then walked over to the other girl's dresser, opened the bottom drawer, and took out a box that was sitting in the otherwise empty drawer.

"What is this, Ruby?" The rabbit faunus asked with a curious expression on her face.

"It's a little secret. I'll reveal it when the others get back from classes, but I didn't want to forget about it," the red-tipped brunette answered with as much cheer as she could muster.

With that the two went to idly chatting as the seconds slowly ticked by. Despite Ruby's weakness she still found the energy to not only remain awake, but actively talk to Velvet for the entire time until the rest of team RWBY returned. When they did return, Blake, Weiss, and Yang all immediately walked over to Ruby, and noticed the box lying next to her.

"What's with the box, Rubes?" Yang asked while pointing at the box.

"Sit down and you'll see," Ruby responded.

With that everyone sat down next to Ruby so she could do whatever it was that she was planning. After ensuring that everyone was within an arm's reach of herself, Ruby opened the box. "I've been saving up most of my life, but with how my disease has been going I figured I might now have too much time to spend it. So I decided to spend all of it on gifts for you. They're not the coolest things out there, but I hope that you'll like them."

With that said, Ruby began to pull out four crystals from the box. Each one a different color. A white one for Weiss, a yellow one for Yang, a brownish one for Velvet, and a purple one for Blake. That wasn't the only special thing about these crystals though. As each person inspected their own gift, they realized that they had something etched into the center of the crystal. After a few moments Weiss' eyes widened.

"That's my snowflake symbol," Weiss whispered to herself. "And a rose is wrapped around it."

"Yup," Ruby said with happiness evident in her quiet voice. "I would have put my own symbol… but I couldn't think of a way to work it into any of your symbols… so I just had to substitute it with a rose. I kinda wanted to symbolize that since you are my best friends, I'm going to stay with you guys forever."

Ruby suddenly found herself the focus of four separate, tear-filled gazes. These weren't the gazes she was used to either. There was no pain, or sorrow in her friend's eyes this time. This time there was only happiness and gratefulness. She smiled weakly at her friends.

"Thank you guys for being such amazing friends," she said softly.

"Rubes," Yang said as she turned her gaze back to her gift. "This gift means more than you could possibly realize. Thank you… so much."

"It's no problem, Yang," Ruby responded with a smile. "I am really tired though. I'm going to get some rest. Hope you guys have a great night.

Less than an hour later both Qrow and Raven entered the dorm room to find the five students asleep scattered about the room. The heartwarming sight was made slightly depressing due to Ruby's condition, but after Raven approached Yang and saw that she was cuddling around a square crystal about the size of a fist, she smiled to herself and motioned for Qrow to walk over.

Qrow did his best to inspect the crystal without actually touching it, and upon realizing what it was, he walked over to the other residents of the room to find that all but Ruby had a similar crystal.

"Those gifts will probably be the most important gifts they ever get," Raven said with a smile on her face. "I know it would be for me if I got one."

Qrow turned to face his sister, a small smile present on his face. "True. Let's leave them to their rest. We can come back tomorrow when they wake up."

"Agreed."

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys. How's it going? So… this chapter… it happened. Though there was a four hour period of time where I just couldn't write the first sentence of the chapter. Qrow and Raven returned! Though they didn't get much time to shine. Nyway Sorry about how long this chapter took to get out compared to the pace I've been working at recently. Hope everyone has a great day! Please review and let me know how/ what you like about the story/chapter.**


	20. A Peaceful Rose

It had been a week since Qrow and Raven arrived at Beacon to help take care of Ruby. The two had immediately taken over the responsibility of being by Ruby's side at all times so that her friends could go to their classes. The two hunters watched over the young Rose diligently, and did everything they could to take care of her needs. However, despite their best efforts she wasn't getting any better. They knew she wouldn't, but had hoped in their hearts that she would. The two were torn between praying that they could spend more time with the sickly girl, and praying that she wouldn't have to be in pain anymore, even if they knew what would have to happen for that second prayer to come true.

Raven opened her crimson eyes slowly, taking in the area around her. She and Qrow hadn't slept in the same spot more than once since arriving at Beacon. The two always just fell asleep in random parts of the dorm, and they always scanned the area around them when they woke, just to make sure that they wouldn't disturb anyone by moving. As she scanned the area with her eyes she realized she was still in Ruby's bed, as the silver-eyed girl had asked Raven to cuddle with her last night. Feeling a warmth pressing into her stomach she realized that Ruby hadn't moved since then either and she could also feel Ruby's steady, albeit a bit weak, breaths. A warm smile crossed the black haired woman's face as she reached over to pet Ruby's head.

"Good morning, little Rose," she whispered softly. "I'm glad to see you're okay this morning."

A short moment later Ruby's head looked up at her and the young girl spoke. "Not really okay," she whispered out painfully. "But thanks mom." She offered the best smile she could manage as she finished speaking.

"No problem at all, Ruby," Raven responded with a small, forced smile of her own. "Do you need anything?"

She was answered by a slight shake of Ruby's head. "Can we stay like this?"

"Of course, Ruby," Raven responded as she moved to make Ruby slightly more comfortable. "I'll stay here as long as you want."

They stayed like that for an hour before the others started to wake up. The two watched in silence as Ruby's team got ready for classes, and answered with silent smiles when they were told to have a good day. Ruby's silence was forced upon her, as she could no longer muster the energy required to speak above a whisper. Raven's silence was more out of dread than anything else. She and Qrow had been watching Ruby carefully over the past week, and they both realized that every day Ruby deteriorated more than the previous day. Suddenly, they found that the idea that Ruby was the one who had lived the longest with this disease wasn't quite as unbelievable.

After the rest of the team left, Qrow got up from where he was pretending to sleep in the corner. He, like Raven, always woke up earlier than any of the students in Beacon. There were even times where they hadn't gone to sleep for days at a time, and looking at Qrow, one could assume he hadn't slept in a couple of days, which wasn't that uncommon for the man. The irony of a full-grown man unable to take care of himself, yet perfectly able to take care and worry over someone else was not lost on Raven as she raised her eye-brow at him.

"Have trouble sleeping, little crow?" She asked sweetly, earning a scowl from her brother.

"I'm older than you," he shot back. "And no. I'm just keeping watch at night."

"Watch from what? Mosquitoes?"

"Those things are more of a spawn of pure evil than even the grimm."

"Well, aren't we just so lucky that you're here to protect us from the face of pure evil?" Raven's voice held more than a little sarcasm. After she was done speaking she felt Ruby shaking gently with small giggles. She smiled down at her step-daughter, happy that she was able to give her yet another happy memory.

The trio passed most of the day in a similar manner. The adults teasing each other in a playful manner and Ruby listening in and laughing silently to herself. It wasn't anything too special, but they all cherished it. It was something they were doing as a family, and that was something that they had sorely missed out on recently. So caught up in the banter were Qrow and Raven that they didn't even realize that Ruby hadn't said a word all day until the classes were almost out.

"Ruby," Qrow said soothingly, internally berating himself for not noticing earlier. "You haven't spoken all day today. Are you that bad? Or is something else bothering you?"

Silver eyes stared into his own, betraying the intense amount of pain the small girl was in, as well as her incredible weakness. "Both," the girl said so softly that only Raven could hear. "I… I don't want you two to be here when I die."

Raven stared at the sickly girl in shock. "What? Why?"

Qrow cocked his head to the side. "What'd she say?"

"She doesn't want us to be here when she dies," Raven said sadly.

Qrow opted to look at Ruby before motioning for her to continue speaking as he took a few steps forward.

"The closer I get to dieing," the silver-eyed girl began weakly. "The more terrified I get. I don't want your last memory of me to be one of me being a coward."

Raven pulled the small girl into a gentle hug. "You don't need to worry about that Ruby. You're the bravest person I know. Even more so that your Uncle over there."

"However," Qrow said after a few moments of silence. "If that is truly how you feel, then we will respect your wishes."

Ruby nodded slightly, no longer able to find the energy to speak. Her nod was enough however as Qrow stood up.

"We'll leave when your team gets back from classes," he said as comfortingly as he could. "I'll make sure everyone remembers how brave you are."

Ruby looked at her Uncle for a few moments before a soft smile found its way onto her lips. She then turned to look at her mom, who had a conflicted look on her face, and gave her a questioning look.

"I'm sorry, Ruby," the crimson-eyed woman said softly. "It's just a little hard to believe that you don't want me to be here for you. Qrow is right though. We need to respect your wishes, but in order to do that… I should probably stand up."

Ruby's smile grew slightly as Raven got up and started pacing around the room. She truly loved Qrow and Raven, and while she greatly appreciated how much they were willing to sacrifice to be there for her, she felt that they had sacrificed too much already. They needed to get back to work. Remnant needed them more than she did. She wasn't at all surprised when the rest of the time they had to spend with her passed by in silence. She had just told them something that they really didn't want to hear, but she would always feel it was necessary.

After about thirty minutes, Ruby's friends opened the door and entered one by one. Qrow almost ran into Jaune on his way out, with Raven only a few footsteps behind, leaving most of the people in the dorm to wonder what exactly had happened.

"What's up with them?" Yang asked in confusion. "They didn't even say bye."

"I told them to leave, they've spent enough time on me," Ruby answered weakly.

"Was that really the right thing to do?" Pyrrha asked curiously. "I mean they obviously put family above everything else. Would pushing them away at the end really be a good thing?"

"I don't know Pyrrha," Ruby responded. "But I'm not the only person they need to help, and I've got you guys helping me too."

"I doubt they actually left," Yang said with a slight shrug. "Those two are the sneakiest people you'll ever meet. They're probably in the air ducts or something."

Weiss looked at Yang in disbelief. "We just watched them leave."

"Like I said. Sneaky."

Weiss looked to Ruby for confirmation. When she received the slightest nod from her partner she decided to drop the subject. Instead she walked over to the pained girl and knelt down next to Ruby's bed. "You doing any better today?"

Ruby shook her head slowly. Doing her best to hide the pain that she felt. "Sorry Weiss… I'm actually doing worse."

Weiss hung her head. She was fully aware of what the answer would be, just as she had been the day before, and the day before that, but she had allowed herself to hope that Ruby would miraculously start feeling better one day.

"It's okay Weiss," Ruby said quietly as she reached a hand out to touch Weiss' cheek. "This isn't your fault."

Icy blue eyes stared into silver eyes as Weiss attempted to find the words to respond. A few moments later and still no words came forward so she instead leaned forward and gave her partner a gentle hug. As she pulled away from the hug she looked down and saw that Ruby's eyes were closed. The younger girl appeared to have fallen asleep, an event that may have caused some surprise several days earlier, but now it was accepted that she randomly fell asleep.

Velvet walked up beside Weiss and placed a comforting hand on the white haired heiress' shoulder. The act itself wasn't comforting at all, but the fact that there was someone else feeling the same pain helped a little bit. After a second the rabbit faunus spoke for the first time since entering the room. "Should we leave?"

The question was innocent. When Ruby fell asleep it was due to exhaustion and she generally wouldn't wake up until sometime the next day. Leaving would give team RWBY the ability to do their homework and come closer together as a group without any distractions. Despite the relatively simple question, Weiss didn't have an answer. It took a full minute of silence for anyone to act on the question. Oddly enough it was Jaune.

"Come on guys," he said softly while looking at Ruby's bed. "Let's give them some time to themselves."

Everyone else apparently agreed as everyone who wasn't a member of team RWBY silently headed for the door. Well, everyone but Nora who moved to give each member of team RWBY a hug before heading to the door and closing it quietly behind her.

Team RWBY spent the rest of the day in silence. None of them willing to give voice to any of their fears. The conversation that they knew would be the response, the others trying to comfort them, would be entirely pointless. There was no way to comfort any of them. Yang looked out of the window and pondered. The lilac-eyed girl recalled a time where Ruby had expressed surprise that people cared about the fact that she had almost gotten killed by a beowolf. "I'm going to die anyway," the girl had said at the time. "At least this way it's quick."

At the time Yang couldn't understand why Ruby would say something like that, but watching her sister suffer now she had started to understand. Ruby generally didn't mention the fact that she would rather die today than tomorrow, but it was something that Yang was very much aware of now that she knew about Ruby's condition. The blonde found herself immensely grateful that the red-tipped brunette had survived that day, the things that Ruby had taught her were invaluable, and she hoped that she could live up to her younger sister's legacy one day. Now however, it was time for her to go to sleep. So she hopped into her bed, turned on her side, and proceeded to stare at the wall. Soon both Weiss and Blake decided to try and find some sleep as well, though judging from the amount of fidgeting coming from either of the two's beds, neither was having much success.

The three teammates were stuck trying to go to sleep for a little over half an hour before Blake heard a sound. Her sensitive faunus ears flicked slightly as she sat up and tried to identify the source of the sound. It wasn't until a soft "-an you hea-" reached her ears that she realized that Ruby was trying to get her attention. The raven haired girl jumped from her bed and crossed the room as quickly as she could before kneeling next to her team leader's bed and saying, "I'm here Ruby. What's wrong?"

Ruby's silver eyes were barely opened, and her lips formed a faint grimace of pain. "Blake," she began slowly. Her voice barely audible to even Blake. "I don't think I'm going to make it 'till morning."

A cold ball of dread fell into the pit of Blake's stomach. "What can I do?" She asked earnestly.

"Wake up the others, including CFVY and JNPR, and let them all be here please," the sickly girl breathed out. "I want to be with my friends."

No sooner had the request been made than Blake stood up to come face to face with an already awake Weiss. She then turned around to see that Yang was standing up next to her bed, rather than laying on it. "Ruby… doesn't think she'll make it through the night," Blake choked out sadly. That was, by far, the hardest thing she had ever had to say. "She wants us to go get JNPR and CFVY and bring them here."

Yang nodded from her position by her bed. "You stay here, Blake," the blonde said quietly while walking across the room. "Weiss and I will go do our best to knock loudly." Less than two seconds after she had finished saying that both Weiss and Yang had left the room.

Blake listened to their footsteps travel down the hallway. "I guess they'll wake team JNPR up on the way back," she said softly while kneeling down next to Ruby. "Anything else, I can do for you, Ruby?"

A slight shake of her head was the only response Ruby could give at the time, though her pained eyes seemed told Blake of the smaller girl's fear and pain. Blake looked into Ruby's eyes and felt a need to assure the younger girl, to try and take away at least some of Ruby's fear. The only way she could think of to do so was a hug. So, as gently as she could, she wrapped her arms around the younger girl and laid her head on Ruby's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Ruby," the cat-faunus said, her voice shaking with sorrow. "They'll be here soon."

A small, pained laugh that was more of an unusually strong breath than anything resembling a normal laugh escaped Ruby's lips. "You want to know the one thing about dying that's good?"

Tears started forming in Blake's eyes as she lifted her head to look give Ruby a questioning look.

"I ended up falling in love with all of my friends… and I didn't have to hurt some of you by choosing only one."

Blake gave a weak smile back at Ruby, "We could have worked something out."

"No," Ruby said before a moment of silence. During that moment the red-tipped brunette slowly moved her hand to Blake's head and started moving it gently from side to side in a petting motion. "That wouldn't have worked. It's a nice thought though."

The tears started falling freely from Blake's eyes as she looked at her team leader. "I'm sorry, Ruby."

"Don't be, Blake," the silver-eyed girl responded with the slightest hint of a pained frown. "Don't be sad right now. Close your eyes and focus on all of the happy times you've had with your friends."

Some instinct inside Blake screamed at her to keep her eyes open. It told her that if she closed her eyes, she'd lose Ruby forever. However, she couldn't bring herself to disobey her friend and team leader. So she closed her eyes and started focusing on all of the good times she had shared with team RWBY. Granted the team did spend most of their time studying together in some form or another, but they had all found their own ways to enjoy those moments as well. Those memories weren't the highlights of her time at Beacon though, so she moved past them. She thought about the day Ruby had planned out specifically to make each of her teammates happy, and about how that was the day that her team accepted her faunus heritage. She thought about the all the times she spent playing the Remnant board game with them, and how she eventually learned how to beat them all. A small smile found its way onto her lips as she remembered how eventually, Ruby started cuddling with everyone, and how from then there was a danger of being overloaded by cuteness whenever you walked into the dorm room.

A small purr started rumbling in her throat as the happiness from the memories mixed with the feeling of being petted. A small, sad smile found its way onto her face as she was temporarily able to forget the reason she had for crying. It didn't last long though. Not ten seconds after Blake started purring, Ruby's hand fell from Blake's head, and rested lifelessly on her bed. The sudden lack of being petted brought Blake flying back to reality and her eyes snapped open. What she saw made her tears start flowing once again.

Ruby was laying on her bed, motionless and unbreathing. For the first time in days there was not a hint of pain on her face, rather her face was the picture image of peace. Blake's heart lurched at the pain of losing a friend as important to her as Ruby was and she buried her head into Ruby's shoulder as she allowed herself to fully start crying.

That was the scene that the others, including Qrow and Raven, walked in on. No one left team RWBY's dorm that night, nor did anyone say anything. No one slept in a bed either. Everyone grouped together in one large cluster of bodies on the floor, finding comfort in the closeness of the others as they cried their hearts out for the majority of the night.

 **A/N**

 **So… That happened. Yeah… I feel terrible now. I'll just… spend the next few weeks crying in the corner now…**

 **Imo's comments: So, I was going to spend this note yelling at Shaded for how he 'ended' everything, but instead I currently am still recovering from spending 5 minutes crying and another 10 minutes sobbing. I joined as a beta reader for this story back in September, but let me tell you, I had no idea what I got myself into. While I adore this story, like many of you readers, I kept for a very long time clinging to the hope that Ruby would survive. Still, with how I am feeling now, as painful as it is, it truly felt like the right way for the story to 'end'. Please feel free to leave a review, I know Shaded appreciates them, and trust me when I saw he definitely put his all into both his chapter, but also the ones before.**

 **Sauron's comments: So I've been in the background for this story (though I told him flat out that he needs Raven.) When Shaded came up with story, I said that "This is Sauron approved." Reading through it and seeing it completed, I just don't know what to say. Knowing where the story comes from adds a new level, a deeper meaning to the overall story. For me, it was an honor to help create this piece of art, and I won't forget being a part of it. (That's saying a lot, cause I don't remember a dang thing.)**

 **Those two both helped me out immensely as I wrote this story. Most of you will never know how difficult this got to write as Wilting Rose Syndrome is actually based off of several different diseases that some of my friends and/or family have. It ended up striking far closer to home than I ever expected it to.**

 **Dark's Comments: When I first started reading this story literally everyone told me not to. Still I read it to support Shaded. Now I can say I never regretted my decision in doing so. All the yelling, all the tears, it was all worth it. Now please leave a review for all the hard work and tears shaded put into this. It was really hard for him to finish, but he never gave up (mainly because we wouldn't let him).**

 ** **Also… I have three different Epilogues that I plan on writing for this. Do you guys think I should make them a separate story, or just post them here in this story? As I plan on marking this story as complete when this chapter goes up. Also might rename it to A Peaceful Rose.****


	21. Epilogue 1- Burying a Rose

The sun rose over the small grove that served as the final resting place for the woman known as Summer Rose. A place that would soon serve as the final resting place for her daughter as well. The air was chilly and, for now, only two people stood in the grove. Both had blond hair, and both were staring at Summer's grave with sorrow. There was a long silence as the two stood there, both unable to say anything, but it was not an oppressive silence. If anything, it seemed to be comforting to the two. After several minutes, the taller of the two took a step forward.

"I'm sorry, hun," Taiyang said softly. "I wasn't able to help Ruby. At all. Feel free to yell at me when I get there."

Having said that, he took a step back and the young woman at his side stepped forward. "Hi Mum. I did everything I could for her, though I guess I have to leave it in your hands now. Please... take care of my little sister." Yang choked on the last sentence of her statement, before turning around and walking away with her father.

* * *

Four hours later, in that same grove, a large group of people were gathering to be a part of the funeral for the girl known as Ruby Rose. This gathering wasn't limited to family, and as such a good portion of the students and staff from Beacon were there as well. While there were plenty of people there who had never gotten to know the little rose all that well, everyone present had been affected by the girl's example.

The service was short and simple, no one gave any talks, and no one sat by her casket crying their eyes out. All there was, were a few simple tables set up with little things to symbolize her accomplishments, an open casket for her friends and family to see her one last time, and a small journal for people to sign. The journal would be buried with her as something for her spirit to read in her free time.

The majority of the hour long service was dedicated to letting people comfort each other and the signing of the journal. Weiss, Blake and Yang spent this time sitting next to each other in relative silence. Each of them simply taking comfort in each others presence as they reminisced over their memories with Ruby. For several minutes they sat in a triangle with all of them facing inward, but after a while Blake moved to be next to Weiss and the two started to lean in on each other.

Yang noticed this and moved to the other side of Weiss. Opting to simply drape her arm over Weiss' shoulder, rather than lean into the smaller girl. This was something none of them would have ever been comfortable with if it wasn't for Ruby. A smile crossed Yang's face as she realized that she and Weiss would have likely killed one another if it wasn't for Ruby somehow bringing the two together.

"How did we ever become friends?" The blonde asked quietly.

"I'm fairly confident Ruby knew some black magic," Blake responded half-heartedly while directing a sad look at the blonde.

"More like she allowed us to spend more time on helping her, than focusing on our own differences," Weiss said with a sad sigh. "Which taught us to put our differences aside and see each other for who we really are."

Yang pulled Weiss into her for a second before letting the white-haired girl go back to leaning into Blake. "I like Blake's answer more… but I get your point."

Weiss shook her head in slight exasperation. "Anyway, shouldn't we go sign the journal."

"Nope," Yang said matter-of-factly, while keeping the white-haired girl from standing. "We're going to have all of her close family and friends sign it after. So when she decides to read it she can end it with reading all of our comments."

"That seems like a nice idea, but do you really believe she'll be able to read it," Blake questioned from the other side of Weiss.

"Our family believes in the afterlife, it's not a common belief, but we strongly believe that death can't separate us from our true friends and family." Yang said softly. "Honestly… I say 'we' … but I've always had a hard time with it, but now I hope it's true. I want to see my little sister again."

"I hope your family is right as well," Weiss said sadly, which earned a small nod from Blake.

The rest of the funeral passed in silence for the trio. The event allowing them to see everyone who cared about Ruby. All of their close friends were there, and Velvet even spent some time with them in silence. What surprised them was that Cardin Winchester was there, and not just that, but he also came over to them to apologize for his behaviour towards them and their team leader. He then proceeded to give each of them a card that would give them a permanent discount at his father's custom weapons part manufacturing company.

The trio were stunned by the acts of kindness by Cardin for a while after he left them. The silence between them shifting from comfortable to confused, and back to comfortable again. Unfortunately they didn't have too long to wrap their minds around the occurrence as soon the funeral ended and everyone was leaving. Well, everyone except close friends and family.

Those who stayed behind formed a small circle with each other and passed the journal around for everyone to sign before hugs and tears were shared all around and everyone left to go their separate ways.

* * *

 ***Friends and Family Journal Entries***

 _Miss Rose, You will always be remembered by the Beacon staff as a true huntress. I only wish you had the opportunity to graduate and officially be one as well - Ozpin_

 _I would like to inform you that I am going to petition the school to put you on the list of school heroes because of the example you displayed to the students of Beacon. We'll miss you - Glynda Goodwitch_

 _Heya, Ruby. I'm not really sure I belong here, but your uncle told me to stay and sign the journal in this last group. Hope you're doing well. Stay safe for us. We'll see you one day - Jaune_

 _Aww, look at Jauney being all self-conscious. I know we're not the closest of friends, but I do hope you're doing better, Ruby. I'll smash some grimm for you! - Nora_

 _You were an inspiration to all of us, Ruby, and your memory will drive us to greater heights. - Ren_

 _Hello Ruby, I've never signed a journal like this before. I actually rather like this idea. Anyway, I guess you don't need to hear about that. I've always admired your strength, and I'll do my best to learn from your example - Pyrrha_

 _First off, I'd like to apologize for the fact that neither Yatsu nor Fox are here, they're both busy with family matters right now. Secondly, I'd like to thank you for being a great friend, especially to Velvet, and Thirdly, this is going to seem a little out of place, but I feel a need to inform you that you would have been an amazingly cute faunus - Coco_

 _I really want to just scratch through the end of Coco's comment, I really do, but now that I've thought about it, I can't deny that you'd be a cute cat faunus. Sorry, Ruby. Thank you for being a great friend, and for helping me when you had no reason to. I'll do my best to help others from now on - Velvet_

 _Hey kid, I'm going before your other friends because I messed up, and I feel you're closer to them then you are to me anyway. Have a good one, and please tell Summer I say hi. Sorry for not being a good father for most of your life, I promise I'll make it up to you when I get there_

 _P.S. You were cute anyway, you didn't need to be a faunus- Taiyang_

 _I think I need to slap Coco. She's the one that started the whole 'Ruby as a faunus' thing. That said, it would have been nice to have another cat faunus to nap/ cuddle with. I do hope you're doing better Ruby, and I hope that the afterlife is real - Blake_

 _Honestly, how can so many people comment on that in this journal? Well, I can't deny that if I walked in on you, as a cat faunus, cuddling with Blake, I may have just died from how cute it would have been. On to other things, you were a massive inspiration for me, and I'll never forget you. Stay strong, Ruby, I'll be there one day - Weiss_

 _If you were a cat faunus, I would have bought cat ears for me and Weiss and we'd have all cuddled together. Pretty sure Weiss wouldn't freeze me over for that idea. Rubes, I love you, always have, always will. I hope you're happy, pain-free, and at Summer's side right now. I don't plan on dying soon, so we'll have a ton of catching up to do when I get there - Yang_

 _If you were a cat faunus, that would mean that Summer would have had to be a cat faunus… Nope, those aren't safe thoughts to have, that's a dangerous level of cute right there. I love you Ruby. Give your mom a few hugs for me - Raven_

 _That's not just "dangerous" levels of cute, that's like "weapon of mass destruction" levels of cute. Hope you're happy Squirt. I already miss you. Keep watch over your friends, they're a good group of people, and they'll probably get lost without your guidance. For the record, I always beat you in our ice cream eating races - Qrow_

* * *

In a relatively modest garden, two spirits sat, side by side, reading a journal. After they finished reading it, the smaller of the two looked up to the other and said, "Mommy, do you think we can get cat ears?"

The older of the two spirits laughed happily before responding, "I dunno, Ruby, I might be able to pull something off before any of them come to join us."

 **A/N**

 **Hey guys, sorry for the lateness of this epilogue. I should be able to get the other two epilogue scenes out by the end of this week, if nothing comes up in the real world to stop me from working on it. After that I'll have two to three stories that I'll be working on during the weekends as I'm devoting the majority of my week days to other writing projects.**

 **Beta Note**

 **Yup, faunus Ruby would be adorable.**


	22. Epilogue 2 - A Rose's Communication

Blake walked silently through the forest towards the final resting place of Ruby and Summer Rose. A couple of weeks after the young Rose's funeral Yang had told all of Ruby's friends about how Ruby used to visit Summer's grave on a regular basis to chat. Now, three years later, it had become a tradition for all of them. At least once per year, they'd take the time to travel to patch and visit Ruby's grave to talk to her. What Blake found weird was that sometimes when she visited, she'd feel emotional responses to her comments and questions. The first time she had experienced this, she had simply asked Ruby how she was doing, and suddenly felt joyful that she was at the gravesite.

At first, Blake had been confused and thought she was imagining things, though after awhile she told Yang about it, and Yang had confirmed that she had the same thing happen to her. A few rounds of questioning later, and soon everyone knew that this was a common theme about their visits. The group came to the conclusion that, either they were all going crazy, or that was how Ruby communicated with them, and as such their visits became more regular.

Blake's footsteps were heavy as she walked towards Ruby's grave this time, she was looking forward to communicating to her best friend, but she would also have to inform Ruby that she wasn't going to be able to visit for a while. Ultimately, what was happening would be a good thing, but not being able to visit Ruby would put a small damper on it. Not enough of a damper to make Blake consider not going through with it though.

After a while Blake reached the clearing that served as the resting place for the two Roses and she walked forward to stand in front of Summer's gravestone. "Hello, Summer," the raven-haired faunus said softly. "I'm here to talk to Ruby, but I figured I'd say hi to you first. I never met you in person, but I know you were a great person. I hope you have a great day."

After finishing her short remarks to Summer, Blake took a few steps to her right to stand in front of Ruby's grave. She didn't even get any words out before she felt a familiar warmth spread through her body. The feeling wasn't unfamiliar, and she assumed that this was Ruby's current equivalent of a hug.

"Hello, Ruby," the faunus said quietly. "Hope you've been doing good."

She paused slightly as if waiting for a response, and when nothing happened she continued. "I've been doing really good myself. A lot has happened in the past six months, though I have some news that might sadden you, or make you really happy."

She felt a wave of cautious curiosity hit her and smiled sadly. "Well, the bad part is that I'm not going to be able to visit you for a while. Not entirely sure how long, but I won't be able to come back for at least a year."

A feeling of sadness pulled on her heart for a moment before she continued. "Here's the good part, it's because I'm pregnant." When Blake finished that sentence, she was hit by a wave of excitement so strong that it almost made her want to start bouncing up and down. "And I was wondering if you'd be willing to let me name the baby after you if it's a girl."

A feeling of joy and acceptance was all that Blake needed for her answer. She then proceeded to spend an hour or so just talking to Ruby's gravestone, telling her old friend about everything that had happened, and what she her next few goals were going to be. A smile played across her lips as she promised Ruby that she'd bring her daughter by one day to say hi.

After she felt that she had sufficiently informed Ruby about what's been going on, she said goodbye, which caused her to feel the feeling of warmth that she associated with hugs again, and left the grave site.

* * *

Weiss was visiting Ruby's grave site for the first time in years. It was something she had been longing to do for a while. She had had a lot of stuff happen after her last visit and it was eating away at her to have not visited her friend in a reasonable amount of time. She had plans to make up for lost time though. She had brought her small family to patch for an annual event as an excuse to take a short break from their ever demanding schedule, and she wanted to spend a full day talking to Ruby. So she woke up early in the morning and started the short hike over to the grave site. A smile on her lips as she was able to breath in fresh air and enjoy the colors of the sunrise.

When Weiss got to the clearing she let a soft smile cross her lips as she realized that it was as clean and well-tended as ever. Of course, Yang and Taiyang would never let this place degrade. It held two of the most important people to ever enter their lives. After a few moments of letting the peace of the area sink in, she started to walk forward again. Weiss hadn't even made it halfway to the gravestones before she was hit with a sudden wave of excitement and joy.

"Hello, Ruby," the white-haired woman said softly with a smile on her lips. "I've missed you as well. I'm sorry for how long it's been since I last visited."

A wave of confusion emotions that Weiss could only classify as forgiveness washed over her and she smiled to herself. "So let's see," she hummed to herself as she continued walking over to Ruby's grave. "What all has happened since I last visited? You might wanna get ready, a lot has happened. Including some stuff that is going to surprise you."

"Actually," the white-haired woman said quickly while reaching into a bag she brought with her. "Before I forget, I wanted to give you this." She then pulled a small vial out of her bag and placed it on Ruby's grave. Confusion and curiosity washed over her with such an intensity she almost thought she didn't know what it was.

A smile played across her lips. "It's the cure to Wilting Rose Syndrome. The SDC started funding a research team while we were at Beacon, they finally succeeded. It's more of a suppression agent, but it's strong enough to put the disease into a recession, and when taken once every three months, should allow someone to live as if they didn't even have the disease."

A feeling of pure joy flowed through Weiss, followed by a similar measure of excitement, and Weiss couldn't help but give in to the small impulse to bounce a few times.

"Now, where was I?" Weiss asked rhetorically while taking a moment to collect her thoughts. "Oh right I was catching you up on all that's happened. Well first off, I am no longer the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company," she stated happily. "After reversing the damage that my father caused, and making sure that we were treating all of our workers fairly, I passed on that responsibility to the one person I trust to continue driving the company in the right direction, my husband."

A feeling of shock and confusion caused her to almost gasp at its intensity. "Yeah, I know. Last time I visited I told you I was into girls, and for the most part it's still true, but… it was kind of weird how it happened. I can't really tell you when I fell in love with him, it was more like I slowly crawled my way there. At first he was nothing more than an annoying, yet persistent, person. Then he showed me that he was a competent businessman, despite his goofy act outside of his work. After that, I decided to trust him with some of the problems I was facing, and he helped me through them. He never told me what to do, just helped me figure out what choices I had, and the foreseeable consequences of each choice."

Her eyes closed and a smile danced across her face at the memory of the first time the man had helped her. "After that, I trusted him with more and more of my issues, and eventually I guess I just trusted him a little too much, and my emotions for him got a little too strong. He's still an annoying idiot, but he's mine now. So that's a good thing I guess."

A wave of joy washed over her bringing, making her smile wider as it did. "I'm glad you approve, Ruby. I'll have to bring him to visit sometime, maybe even later this week." As she finished that remark a wave of excitement washed over her, which made her make a mental note to do what she had said.

"There are three other major things I want to tell you about before I start just chatting at you," Weiss said, which prompted a sudden rush of curiosity.

"Well the first one is that I founded the Rose Foundation," the words had hardly left her lips when she felt shock cause her freeze for a moment, before it slowly turned into awestruck happiness. "Which is a two-part organization that is partnered to the SDC. It's main purpose is to perform humanitarian missions all across Remnant, and help to fortify the smaller towns and villages. It's secondary purpose is to help children from families, who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it, to go to schools to become huntsmen and huntresses. I hope you don't mind that I named it after you."

She waited for a response, which came in the form of a feeling of acceptance and happiness so strong that it actually brought a few tears to her eyes. She struggled to find the words she wanted to say for a few minutes, but eventually was able to find her voice again. "I've had a daughter." A declaration that was met with joy and excitement. "And since Blake already named her beautiful, if frustratingly energetic, daughter Ruby. My husband and I had originally thought about naming ours Summer, but instead decided on the name Autumn."

A new feeling of being at a loss for words hit Weiss, and it wasn't something that the white-haired woman was used to feeling. She decided to give Ruby a few moments to recover from the last bit of news, opting to sit down and look at the clouds in the sky rather than say anything.

"She's going to be a huntress," she said after a good three minutes had passed by. "Or at least I think she's going to be. She's so obsessed with pictures of huntresses, and weapons, that I can't really see her becoming anything else. Of course, she's about to turn three, so she has a while to change her mind, but if that does end up happening, would you mind if I took Crescent Rose from your dad and trained her to use it?"

A strong feeling of confirmation passed through her, and she nodded in response.

"Well, those are all of the big things I wanted to talk about, but we have plenty of little things to talk about. I have to make up for not visiting you for five years after all."

* * *

A quiet woman with a beanie covering her left eye walked through the forest. She didn't even know why she was doing this. Well, she did, one of her best friends had told her to. "May you need to talk to my sister, she'll love you," the fiery blonde known as Yang had told her. Yang had been the first person from Beacon to talk to May during the interschool event known as the Vytal festival, and from there the two had developed a strong friendship that led to May being introduced to all of Yang's friends. A week ago Yang had mentioned that she wanted May to meet her sister, and May didn't even hesitate to agree. She didn't realize that 'meeting Yang's sister' secretly meant walking through a forest, alone, to find said sister's grave.

May didn't really mind, though she was mildly afraid of getting lost. After all, she had known that Ruby was dead before Yang had asked if she wanted to meet Ruby. Though she had expected Yang, or at least someone, to guide her as she traveled to the girl's resting place. The only reason she never turned around to yell at Yang was the stories that Yang had told her. The stories about Ruby and how she never gave up. The way Yang talked about her younger sister was so filled with love and care that May couldn't help but feel as if she had come to know Ruby on some level.

May wanted to be alone for this. She had a lot of respect for Ruby. The stories that everyone shared about her example to them only solidified that respect, and she wanted to tell Ruby about that respect, and about the obvious love that her friends had for the deceased girl.

When she found the clearing she breathed a short sigh of relief. She hadn't gotten lost, that's one of two major challenges down. She took a couple of seconds to compose herself before continuing to walk up to Ruby's gravestone.

"Hello, Miss Rose," May said, earning an oddly disapproving feeling as she said it.

"Umm… Miss Ruby?" The disapproving feeling was less intense this time.

"Ruby?" This time she was met with a happy feeling and a warmth spreading through her body.

"Hello, Ruby," May said, relieved that she hadn't somehow offended Ruby, but also confused at these feelings she was having. ' _I know that Yang told me that Ruby can communicate with us, but this feels really weird.'_ May thought to herself.

"You don't know me," the beanie wearing girl said softly. "But I'm a friend of your sisters. My name is May Zedong." A weird sensation that seemed to be a mixture of curiosity, excitement, and acceptance flowed through the woman when she said that.

"Your sister actually told me to come by and say hi to you, she said I should meet you, and that you'd love me," May said, her voice steadily getting softer as she continued. The response she earned was a feeling of amused happiness.

"I did have my own reasons for visiting you though. I want to let you know that your friends still love you dearly. The way they tell stories about you, and always make sure to try to live up to your example to them. There is no way that they don't still love you."

Acceptance and gratitude found it's way into May's heart as she stood there in silence. "Umm… that's all I really had to say, and I don't really know how to 'chat' with you… so I'll be going for now… but I'll stop by and visit again sometime."

Amusement washed through her once more as she turned around and walked away from the grave.

' _Now to find my way back,'_ she thought to herself.

* * *

A young woman in a light brown cloak found herself standing on the edge of the clearing that was her destination. She pulled the hood on her cloak back, revealing short white hair and bright blue eyes. She wasn't tall or large, only standing five feet and six inches tall and having a relatively slim build. Though, she had a fierceness in her eyes that few could match. She walked slowly up to the grave and bowed.

"Hello, aunt Ruby," the white-haired girl said softly. "My name is Autumn. I know you're not actually my aunt, but mom said that we're to treat you as if you were family."

The girl felt a feeling of happiness spread through her, along with a feeling of warmth.

"I wanted to thank you for letting me use Crescent Rose, and to tell you that I've been accepted into Beacon Academy." A rush of excitement flowed through her as she finished that statement.

"Thank you aunt Ruby, for everything. Your example has affected so much of my life, despite the fact that I never met you. Your legacy lives on through my mom, and the other friends you had in life. I'd say I can't wait to meet you, but I should do my best to help as many people as I can before I do."

A feeling of amused gratitude spread within her. "I feel weird not having someone speaking back to me, and I fear that I've run out of things that I came here to say. So I'll let you rest. I promise to come back and let you know how I'm doing at Beacon, during my breaks."

As Autumn walked away she was filled with warmth and a feeling of eagerness.

 **A/N**

 **So, this took a lot longer than originally planned. This was supposed to come out on Wednesday, and here it is Saturday morning (3 am) and I'm just barely finishing it. I mean yes, real life stuff did get in the way, but dang this was an unexpected delay. However, I do sincerely hope you guys enjoyed it, and hope you all have a good day. I should still have the final epilogue done out either tomorrow or Monday.**


	23. A Friendly Meeting

May Zedong was in a terrible situation. She had been assigned to escort a team of huntsmen in training for a simple mission. The problem being, that the mission ended up being anything but simple. What was supposed to be a small group of grimm, ended up being a massive gathering the likes of which hasn't been recorded in generations. There was no way a student team could handle that kind of grimm army, so she had them turn and run, which they were still doing. Unfortunately they had made too much noise as they left and they were now being chased, meaning that unless May could do something really quickly, they were all going to die. Pulling out her scroll she called the pilot of the airship that was supposed to pick them up.

"This is an emergency, I need you to pick us up at the drop-off location as quickly as you can possibly get there," the beanie wearing woman shouted as soon as the man picked up. "If we're not there in thirty minutes then leave us for dead and tell the headmaster that this is a situation that requires a large group of highly skilled huntsman and huntresses."

"What do you mean 'leave us for dead'?" One of the male students that was following her asked.

"Well, I didn't really mean 'us'," May answered. "I meant 'me'."

"What do you mean?" A female student asked.

"It means that you four are going to keep going to the drop-off point, while I stay behind and buy you time," May answered, her visible blue-grey eye shining with determination.

May then turned around to face the horde of grimm that were chasing after them and started to plan. All she had was her rifle and her semblance. Neither of which would have much of an impact on how quickly these creatures would advance, so she did something completely different. She charged them.

When she reached the enemy grimm, she kept charging forward, dancing through the massive horde until she came out on the other side. After that she looked behind her just long enough to ensure that the grimm were following her, and kept running. It was a desperate attempt at a distraction, and she couldn't keep running for long either. She was already panting and, despite her best efforts, she had taken a couple of hits while running through the horde.

Minutes ticked by and May continued to run. By this point her body was running purely off of adrenaline and sheer willpower, though that was quickly running low. Her breathing became more and more labored, and her legs became heavier and heavier. When she finally fell to the ground and tumbled into a rock, she could only turn and glare at the approaching grimm. She was going to die, that was obvious. She could only hope that she had given the students enough time to escape.

She kept staring at the horde, waiting to see the beast that was to be her killer. At first she thought that it would be an average beowulf, which honestly would have been insulting to a fully trained huntress, but when she looked up she realized it was wrong. The giant razor-sharp feathers that the bird-like nevermore grimm launched at her were already approaching. May positioned herself so that her death would be quick. If she was going to die there was no need for her to prolong it. After ensuring she was positioned correctly, she closed her eyes and waited.

"Sorry," she whispered softly. "I won't be able to make it home this time."

* * *

May woke to find herself in a place she had never seen before. It seemed familiar however. It had the trees from the forests around Vale, but she could guarantee that she had never been to this particular spot. For a while she wondered why she was here, until the memories of her death came back to her.

"I'm… dead?" She asked herself softly. "Then where am I?"

Looking around, everything was beautiful. Maybe she had wound up in a place comprised solely of things she thought was beautiful? No, if that were true there'd be the desert flowers from Vacuo that she adored. Maybe it was just a very peaceful place for resting, but if so where was everyone else? Shouldn't more people have died? Do they all go to different places?

The recently dead woman didn't have to ponder this too long as a female voice called out from behind her. "May?"

Turning around May looked into silver eyes that were filled with concern. Those silver eyes and red-tipped brown hair, mixed with the fact that the young woman she was looking at appeared to recognize her, led May to realize that she was looking at none other than Ruby Rose. The little sister of her best friend Yang. Something like this couldn't possibly happen right? Ruby died a long time ago, in a place very far away from where May died. Why would they be in the same place?

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was Ruby, so she took a small step forward and called out, "Ruby?"

It only took a moment for May to get her answer, and it was in the form of a hug from the smaller girl. An unexpected hug, but a comfortable and much needed hug nonetheless. No sooner had May wrapped her arms around the smaller girl than did she herself start shaking and crying almost uncontrollably.

"It's okay, May," Ruby said softly. "I don't know why or how you died, but you're here now. Nothing bad can happen to you here. Unless you didn't want to meet me."

May shook her head at that. The worried tone in Ruby's voice causing her to ask herself why the younger girl cared so much. The two stayed like that for a while as May cried her heart out and Ruby did her best to comfort the blue-grey eyed woman.

"Why are you here helping me?" May asked as soon as she gained enough control over herself to sound reasonably calm. "We've never actually met, and I've only visited you three times."

"Well, I considered you a friend after your first visit." Ruby answered with a bright smile. "That and you're Yang's friend, why wouldn't I want to help you?"

The younger girls logic caused May's lips to form a small smile. The smile quickly faded, as she had no clue what to do from here. What did a spirit do? Was there something she was supposed to accomplish? Luckily there was someone here to help her, so she voiced her first question. "What happens now?"

The wide smile that spread on Ruby's face almost made May feel like running away. "Now," the smaller girl said while grabbing May's hand. "I introduce you to my mom, and we get to work on making a third set of cat ears."

The beanie wearing girl was almost certain she had heard that wrong, but before she could say anything, Ruby had grabbed her hand and was leading her away. May smiled to herself as she let herself get dragged away. As much as she wasn't certain about what was going to happen, at least she was certain that it would be fun and interesting.

 **A/N**

 **With that this story is finished, and now everyone knows why May was introduced in epilogue 2.** **I'm honestly quite sad with how this turned out, as I feel that I didn't even approach the quality required to do this story justice. I guess I can only hope that one day, I can come back and re-write it. Here you go guys. I'll actually do all I can to respond to reviews to this chapter, as I've been really bad about that in previous chapters. So if you have any questions about this story, I guess now would be the time to voice them to me. With that, I hope you all have a great day! I also apologize that two of the epilogues were pretty short.**

 **Beta Notes**

 **And that's all he wrote I guess. I want to thank Shaded for allowing me to work on this story with him, it has quite honestly been an honour to work with him on this story, knowing just how much this means to him. Also a thank you to any readers who have been here since the start, and even the ones who joined in later. I know it's all the feedback that has kept Shaded going, and I hope that he'll (and probably** _ **we'll**_ **) see you back here for any future stories.**

 **Shaded: I suppose I should explain something. Imo says this is important to me, because it really is. This story, has a lot of thing that are based off of my life. Ruby is based off of a friend of mine who died of cancer, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are all based off of parts of me mixed with other friends who were there for that friend, and so on and so forth. So.. yeah, this was an intense story for me to write.**

 **P.S. Definitely "We'll" as I'm going to invite Imo to beta for all of my stories, and hopefully she'll like at least one enough to say 'yes'.**


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